Drexel’s newest teaching aid wouldn’t fit through the door of any classroom. The nearly 10-foot-tall steel teaching sculpture was installed in the fall outside the Bossone Research Enterprise Center, opposite the Center for Automated Technology, where it will be passed daily by Drexel’s engineering students. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the structure contains all of the most common connections and members found on any steel building or bridge.
The same structure exists on more than 170 college campuses around the world, though Drexel’s will be the first in Philadelphia, according to the American Institute of Steel Construction, which encourages its use as a teaching aid.
“We can send students there and actually have homework assignments revolving around this steel sculpture, and it will also be a point of pride and reinforcement,” says Abieyuwa Aghayere, a professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering.
Drexel’s teaching sculpture — donated by JGM, B. Pietrini & Sons and Jensen/BRV Engineers — contains all of the most common connections and members found on any steel building or bridge.