Evaluation of interior lighting analysis and design software

Call number: LD2668 .R4 AECS 1988 W38Master of ScienceArchitectural Engineering and Construction Scienc

The Effects of the Visual Environment on K-12 Student Achievement

The varying indoor environments among educational buildings can have an impact on students’ ability to learn. This study looks at field data from 220 classrooms in the Midwest, United States, over a two-year period, to analyze the effects of the visual environment on student achievement. The visual environmental metrics considered within this scope include the three new view metrics introduced within the EN 17037 “Daylight of Buildings” standard (Horizontal Sight Angle, Outside Distance of View, and Number of View Layers), as well as standard daylight and electric lighting metrics, focusing on light availability and glare. To capture student achievement, math and reading achievement scores were used, accompanied by auxiliary demographic variables. This allowed for a correlational analysis using multivariate regression. Among the notable results of this study, there was a positive effect of the availability of view on reading achievement. However, another view metric, Horizontal Sight Angle, showed a significant negative interaction with free and reduced lunch recipients on reading achievement, indicating that demographics can also have a significant role in the way the visual environment can affect learning

A need for evidence-based and multidisciplinary research to study the effects of the interaction of school environmental conditions on student achievement

With funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Healthy Schools initiative, a research team from the University of Nebraska– Lincoln (UNL) is currently working on establishing how environmental conditions in K-12 school buildings impact student scholastic achievement. The objectives of the research project are: (1) to study comprehensively the impacts of a wide set of indoor environmental factors (including indoor air quality, thermal, lighting and acoustic conditions) on student achievement; (2) to investigate how these environmental conditions interact with each other to impact student achievement; (3) to rank order the environmental variables in terms of their relative impact on student achievement and (4) to determine how these effects vary with different demographic (e.g. socio-economic) groups

Empirical Legal Studies Before 1940: A Bibliographic Essay

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is an extensive bibliographic essay that surveys the English language empirical legal research from approximately 1940 and earlier. The essay is arranged around the themes in the research: criminal justice, civil justice (general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, civil juries), debt and bankruptcy, banking, appellate courts, legal needs, legal profession (including legal education), and judicial staffing and selection. Accompanying the essay is an extensive bibliography of research articles, books, and reports

Industry Participation in the Interdisciplinary Team Design Project Course of a Master of Architectural Engineering Program

This is a case study of extensive industry participation in the capstone design course of the Master of Architectural Engineering program at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. This course, entitled Interdisciplinary Team Design Project, pairs teams of professional engineers and students to provide mentoring, assessment, and feedback, as the students work on interdisciplinary teams to design the building systems for a real-world project. For the spring 2010 semester, over 33 industry professionals participated in the course, each contributing approximately 40 to 50 hours of mentoring and assessment. This paper describes the course format and industry involvement, which provides students with invaluable, hands-on learning experiences

Industry-Experienced Graduate Student Program: Innovative Collaboration in Architectural Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln

In 2001, the Architectural Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, along with industry partners, established an industry-experienced graduate student program. The program was developed to bring experienced design professionals to collaborate with the industry while pursuing a Ph.D. in architectural engineering. This program is designed to be mutually beneficial to industry partners, -graduate students, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Architectural Engineering Department, and the building industry at large. The first doctoral candidate in the program graduated, and significant collaborative work was completed for the industry partner. All parties to this initial offering are pleased with the outcome and believe the benefits significantly outweigh the costs. This paper presents the program, lessons learned, and plans for the future. The authors are the faculty, the industry partner, and the graduate associated with this initial application of the program. CE Database subject headings: Industries; Graduate study; Engineering education; Architectural engineering; Education-practice interchange