First of its kind studio shares students between universities in in classroom settings
Based on the grant received from Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Foundation and the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) Foundation, California State University-Chico (CSU-Chico) and Kansas State University (KSU) offered the first cross-campus online courses on precast concrete management for the second time in the Spring semester (January through May 2023) and the second cross-campus online courses on precast concrete design in the fall semester (August through December 2022). Students were exposed to a hybrid on-campus/online learning environment full of cross-campus mutual interactions as well as interactions with the industry by means of zoom meetings, and guest speakers throughout the learning experience. Virtual and in person site visits to fabrication plants were conducted using plant tours videos available courtesy of both NPCA and PCI, in addition to access to partners facilities in California and Kansas. In Precast Concrete Production Management (CNS 644 /CIMT 455) course a total of 18 students (17 from CSU-Chico and 1 from KSU) were enrolled in the first year and a total of 33 students (15 from CSU-Chico and 18 from KSU) were enrolled in the second year. As for the Precast Concrete Building Design (CIVL 598 /CE 690) course, a total of 11 students (4 from CSU-Chico and 7 from KSU) were enrolled in the first year.
During the Precast Concrete Production Management course, the students were challenged with a project that involved biding, marketing, planning, producing, delivering and constructing a secondary containment system of walls for a chemical plant in Louisiana. This was a project that was obtained with the help of the NPCA foundation based on an actual project done by one of their members. Details about the project are given in the Term Project section of this report. Some modification to the project was performed based on feedback from first year offering.
Click on the document below to read the full report on the studio (use the square at the bottom left to get it to your full screen).