Graduate Courses

AE 401: Design of Steel and Wood Structures for Buildings
Application of principles of engineering mechanics to layout, analysis, design, and detailing of structural elements in steel and wood of simple buildings. Prerequisite: AE 221, AE 222, AE 308.

AE 402: Design of Concrete Structures for Buildings
Application of principles of engineering mechanics to layout, analysis, design, and detailing of structural elements in concrete of simple buildings. Prerequisite: AE 221, AE 222, AE 308.

AE 403: Advanced Steel Design for Buildings
Continuation of AE 401. Advanced analysis, design, and detail of the structural elements in wood and steel. Prerequisite: AE 401, AE 430.

AE 404: Building Structural Systems in Steel and Concrete
Basic analysis, design, and detailing of steel and concrete structural elements for buildings, emphasizing systems design and comparisons. AE 404 is not permitted for AE Structural Option students or for architecture students. Prerequisite: AE 221, AE 222, AE 308.

AE 405: Geotechnical Engineering
Course prepares students for understanding, analysis, evaluation, and design of the most commonly used shallow foundation systems to support buildings. Prerequisites: (AE 308; CE 340), (AE 402; AE 404).

AE 421: Architectural Structural Systems I
Qualitative and quantitative analysis and design of architectural structures, force flow; structure configurations; measurement and experiments; design studio critique. Prerequisite: AE 210, 3 credits in mathematics.

AE 422: Architectural Structural Systems II
Continuation of AE 421, with emphasis on structural configuration and construction assemblies. Prerequisite: AE 421.

AE 424: Environmental Control Systems I
Fundamental principles and applications of environmental systems in buildings. This course is intended for architecture students. Prerequisite: AE 211.

AE 430: Indeterminate Structures
Classical methods of analysis for beams, frames, arches, and secondary stresses as applied to buildings; introduction to modern methods. Prerequisite: AE 308.

AE 431: Advanced Concrete Design for Buildings
Continuation of AE 402. Advanced analysis, design, and detail of concrete masonry, prestressed and reinforced concrete. Prerequisite: AE 402, AE 430.

AE 432: Design of Masonry Structures
Analysis and design of unreinforced and reinforced masonry: non-bearing walls, bearing walls, shear walls, and masonry building systems. Prerequisite: AE 402 or CE 341.

AE 441: Engineering Lifecycle Economic Analysis for Buildings
This course will focus on understanding the economics of the building lifecycle and the analytical approaches to evaluate higher cost building systems that may reduce overall lifecycle costs. Prerequisites: AE 372.

AE 445: Building Retuning
An undergraduate course focused on the implementation of energy-efficient measures for commercial buildings and is intended for students with backgrounds in building design, construction, operations, and facilities management. Prerequisites: AE 424; AE 476; AE 454.

AE 453: Load and Energy Use Simulations for Buildings
Course examines measurement and mathematical modeling techniques for predicting and determining energy use of whole buildings and important subsystems. Prerequisite: AE 310, AE 454.

AE 454: Advanced Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning
Engineering design and performance analysis procedures for complex commercial building systems, including energy conservation techniques; design project. Prerequisite: AE 310.

AE 455: Advanced Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning System Design
Design of several different systems for a course project building; control strategy; economic comparisons using life-cycle cost techniques. Prerequisite: AE 454.

AE 456: Solar Energy Building System Design
Solar radiation, collectors, and thermal storage; design and analysis of a heating system using system-simulation computer program. Prerequisite: seventh-semester standing in engineering.

AE 457: HVAC Control Systems
Theory of automatic control. HVAC control applications. Control system components, control loops, development and documentation of control logic, control commissioning. Prerequisite: AE 454.

AE 458: Advanced Architectural Acoustics and Noise Control
Advanced consideration of noise control in buildings; ventilating system noise and vibration; acoustic design variables. Prerequisite: AE 309.

AE 459: Measurement Science for High Performance Building Systems
The course Measurement Science for High Performance Building Systems is meant to provide students hands-on experience of measuring building energy performance, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. Prerequisites: AE 310 and AE 454.

AE 461: Architectural Illumination Systems and Design
Lighting units and photometry; lighting equipment; design criteria, calculation methods; the design process; energy codes. Prerequisite: AE 311.

AE 462: Architectural Lighting Controls
Designed for students who wish to gain a more thorough understanding of architectural lighting controls and integration of controls with other building systems. Prerequisite: AE 461.

AE 464: Advanced Architectural Illumination Systems and Design
Flux transfer theory; advanced lighting and control systems; emergency lighting; daylighting; visual performance issues; psychological aspects of lighting. Prerequisite: AE 461.

AE 466: Computer Aided Lighting Design
Design and analysis for outdoor area; floodlighting; and interior applications, including design criteria; economic analysis; modeling algorithms; and visualization. Prerequisite: AE 444, AE 461.

AE 467: Advanced Building Electrical System Design
Design of electrical systems for commercial and industrial facilities emphasizing design practice and integration with codes and standards. Prerequisite: AE 311, EE 211.

AE 468: Advanced Building Electrical and Communication Systems
Special Building Electrical and Communication Systems is an elective course within the architectural engineering program. It addresses specialized components and analysis of building electrical systems, cost and availability of electrical energy, and power quality. Prerequisite: AE 467.

AE 469: Photovoltaic Systems Design and Construction
Criteria and analysis methods pertaining to the design and construction of photovoltaic (PV) systems and their integration with buildings. Prerequisite: EE 210 or EE 211.

AE 470: Residential Building Design and Construction
Managerial aspects; architectural and code considerations; cost estimating, design, and construction of structural, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical systems. Prerequisite: AE 372 or CE 332, seventh semester standing in architectural engineering or civil engineering.

AE 471: Construction Management of Residential Building Projects
Understanding residential project planning, management, contracts, budget, administration, and execution; discussion of the life cycle of a residential construction business. Prerequisite: sixth semester standing.

AE 472: Building Construction Planning and Management
Construction organization and contracts; preconstruction services; estimating; scheduling; cash flow; site planning and preparation; building construction sequences; construction business presentations; value engineering. Prerequisite: 7th semester standing in architectural engineering.

AE 473: Building Construction Management and Control
Building construction project planning; construction cost, schedule, quality and safety control systems; project cost accounting; change management; construction company management. Prerequisite: AE 472.

AE 475: Building Construction Engineering I
Project planning, supervision, inspection of architectural and structural operations in major buildings; mobilization, coordination of trades; offsite testing and fabrication. Prerequisite: AE 372.

AE 476: Building Construction Engineering II
Construction of mechanical and electrical systems in major buildings; fire protection, sound control, elevatoring; trade coordination; manufacturers’ developments; computer application. Prerequisite: AE 309, AE 475.

AE 481W: Comprehensive Architectural Engineering Senior Project I
Building project selection and preparation of overall plan; preliminary investigation of building design and construction issues; creation of individual Capstone Project Electronic Portfolio (CPEP) and project proposal required. Prerequisite: ARCH 441, 5th year architectural engineering standing in major area of emphasis.

AE 482: Comprehensive Architectural Engineering Senior Project II
Continuation of AE 481W. Engineering analysis of building systems; emphasis on analysis and design of building structural, mechanical, lighting/electrical, and construction related systems. Final written report, web-based project portfolio and verbal presentation are required. Prerequisite: AE 481W.

AE 496: Independent Studies
Creative projects, including research and design, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.

AE 497: Special Topics
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.

AE 498: Special Topics
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in-depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.

AE 498F: Leadership in Building Energy Efficiency
This course focuses on the identification and implementation of energy efficient retuning measures for commercial buildings to detect energy saving opportunities and implement improvements. This course is intended to provide the skills necessary to conduct building retuning.

AE 530: Computer Modeling of Building Structures
Theory and application of structural analysis using the direct stiffness method. Modeling assumptions, validation, interpretation of computer output. Prerequisite: AE 401, AE 402, AE 430.

AE 531 (CE 531): Legal Aspects of Engineering and Construction
Basic legal doctrines, contractual relationships between parties, analysis of construction contract clauses, contract performance, and professional practice problems. Prerequisite: CE 431W.

AE 532: Post-Tensioned Concrete Building Design
This class will explore a set of structural solutions that are often selected when buildings need long spans and/or thinner structural solutions, including efficient transfer members. Prerequisite: AE 430; Concurrent: AE 431.

AE 534: Analysis and Design of Steel Connections
Connection analysis and design for steel buildings with an emphasis on the AISC Specification. Prerequisite: AE 401, AE 430.

AE 535: Historical Structural Design Methods
Qualitative, graphical, and quantitative methods of structural design as practiced from ancient Rome through the nineteenth century.

AE 537: Building Performance Failures and Forensic Techniques
This course provides a background in identification, evaluation, and analysis of a broad set of architectural and structural performance failures. Prerequisite: AE 401, AE 402, AE 430.

AE 538 (CE 538): Earthquake Resistant Design of Buildings
Introductory engineering seismology, basic principles of structural dynamics, application of earthquake design provisions of model building codes to design of buildings. Prerequisite: AE 401, AE 402, AE 430.

AE 542 (CE 542): Building Enclosure Science and Design
The building enclosure: nature, importance, loadings; building science: control of heat, moisture, air, hygrothermal analysis; design: walls, windows, roofs, joints.

AE 543: Research Methods in Architectural Engineering
Research skills, critical thinking, academic writing, presentations, use of electronic media, and experimental design applied to AE research topics.

AE 551: Combined Heat and Power System Design for Buildings
Thermodynamic and thermo-economic analyses methods for determination of optimal, on-site, total energy systems for commercial buildings. Prerequisite: AE 454, AE 557 or AE 558.

AE 552: Air Quality in Buildings
Indoor air pollutants, their sources and health effects; transport of pollutants; modeling of pollutant concentration in buildings. Prerequisite: AE 454, AE 455, ME 410.

AE 553: Building Energy Analysis
Fundamentals of building energy dynamics and the simulation of energy flows in a building; validation of programs; practical applications. Prerequisite: AE 454, AE 455, ME 410.

AE 555: Building Automation and Control Systems
Advanced techniques in the theoretical analysis and practical design of the automatic comfort controls used in building thermal systems. Prerequisite: AE 457.

AE 556: Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes
Advanced quantitative methods of predicting transient active and passive solar process performance with an emphasis on building solar applications. Prerequisite: ME 410.

AE 557: Centralized Cooling Production and Distribution Systems
Central cooling plant and distribution components and systems; thermal, hydraulic, and economic modeling for planning and design. Prerequisite: AE 454 or ME 411 and ME 410.

AE 558: Centralized Heating Production and Distribution Systems
Description and analysis of central heating plant and distribution components and systems; thermal and economic modeling for planning and design. Prerequisite: AE 454 or ME 411 and ME 410.

AE 559: Computational Fluid Dynamics in Building Design
Theory and applications of building environmental modeling with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Prerequisite: AE 454, ME 410.

AE 561: Science of Light Sources
In-depth scientific principles of light generation in modem electric light sources, and the resultant characteristics that influence their use for buildings. Prerequisite: AE 461.

AE 562: Luminous Flux Transfer
Radiative transfer applied to lighting analysis; methods for computing direct and interreflected illumination; nearfield photometry. Prerequisite: AE 461, CMPSC 201 or CMPSC 202.

AE 563: Luminaire Optics
Optical design of reflectors and refractors for lighting systems; manufacturing methods. Prerequisite: AE 464.

AE 565: Daylighting
Design concepts, solar position, sky luminance distribution models, integration of daylighting and electric lighting controls, physical modeling, computer analysis techniques. Prerequisite: AE 461.

AE 566: Windows and Glazing
This course consists of three major sections. It begins with the basics of solar and sky radiation and the theoretical knowledge in the intersectional area between radiometry and photometry related to building windows and glazing materials. Recommended Preparation: A basic understanding and knowledge background of building lighting and mechanical systems.

AE 569: Research Topics in Illumination Engineering
Seminar on prior and current research in illumination engineering which define current recommendations and design practice. Prerequisite or concurrent: AE 461.

AE 570: Production Management in Construction
Applications of production management tools to capital facility projects; theory of production systems in construction; development of production control manual. Prerequisite: AE 475, AE 476 or CE 432.

AE 571: International Construction Management and Planning
Evaluation of international project environments and participants, modeling and planning international projects. Prerequisite: AE 570.

AE 572: Project Development and Delivery Planning
Methods employed by owners and developers to initiate capital facility projects; defining project objectives, constraints, participants, financing, and delivery methods. Prerequisite: AE 475, AE 476 or CE 432.

AE 575: Virtual Facility Prototyping
Designed for students who wish to gain a more thorough understanding of the application of virtual facility prototypes in the construction industry.

AE 579: Sustainable Building Project Leadership
Examines leadership skill sets, team competencies, and strategic methods for leading sustainable building construction projects and retrofits.

AE 596: Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.

AE 597: Special Topics
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently; several different topics may be taught in one year or semester.

AE 598: Special Topics
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently.

AE 600: Thesis Research

AE 601: Ph.D. Dissertation Full-Time

AE 602: Supervised Experience in College Teaching
Supervised experience in teaching and orientation to other selected aspects of the professional at the Pennsylvania State University.

AE 603: Foreign Academic Experience
Foreign study and/or research constituting progress toward the degree at a foreign university.

AE 610: Thesis Research Off Campus

AE 611: Ph.D. Dissertation Part-Time

AE 862: Distributed Energy Planning and Management
Theories and practices of distributed energy production and management in the context of regional and integrated energy grid structures.

AE 868: Commercial Solar Electric Systems
Theories and practices of solar electric systems including component selection, performance simulation, grid interconnection, codes, and design documentation.

AE 878: Solar Project Development and Finance
Economic analysis of solar energy projects, project development process, energy policies, finance methods, and economic analysis tools.

AE 880: Facility Energy Management
Course examines fundamentals of energy supply, use and management related to the operation of buildings.

AE 881: Effective Facility Management and Planning
Course examines management skills necessary to effectively lead and manage a facility management organization.

AE 897: Special Topics
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently; several different topics may be taught in one year or semester.

 
 

About

Globally recognized as a leading architectural engineering department, the mission of the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State is to advance the built environment through the development of world-class architectural engineers and research. The vision of the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State is to lead the world in innovative education and research to achieve high-performing built environments. Our program emphasizes the scientific and engineering aspects of planning, designing, and constructing buildings, providing our architectural engineering graduates with outstanding education and research opportunities. 

Department of Architectural Engineering

104 Engineering Unit A

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA 16802

Phone: 814-865-6394