Shambhu Sharan

Henry Beck III, Beck Group CEO and Managing Director, talks about the intergration of architecture contractors and designers at the Building Science Expo on Wednesday night in the Architecture Building. The Beck Group offers project finance, design construction and developement services throughout the U.S. and Mexico. (The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt)

UTA hosted the Eighth Annual Building Science Expo on Wednesday to help manufacturing companies showcase their products and design materials to architecture students.

The expo presented a program, “Beyond Integrated Project Delivery: The Integrated Enterprise,” wherein 24 building manufactures showcased their building materials and speakers lectured to 125 architecture students, faculty and staff.

The School of Architecture, in association with the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the Construction Specifications Institute, organized the event.

Keynote speaker Henry C. “Peter” Beck III, CEO and managing director of Beck Group, concluded the event.

Beck Group is a well-known, integrated firm offering project finance, design, construction and development services across the United States and Mexico. It has also been recognized as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune magazine.

Beck spoke on “The Integrated Enterprise.” Beck discussed integrating building constructors and architects using the successful stories implemented in his company.

Beck said his companies integrate the building disciplines through unique processes and technologies, resulting in order of magnitude, improvements in design, cost and schedule.

The School of Architecture students and faculty have done a good job on overall performance in architecture and designing, Beck said.

Architecture senior Tai Le looks over roofing materials for modern buildings at the Science Expo on Wednesday afternoon in the architecture building. The Science Expo was held for architecture students to get exposed to interior and exterior building products from different vendors. (The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt)

Architecture Dean Donald Gatzke announced Georgia-Pacific as a gold sponsor for donating $1,000 to the school. Headwaters Construction Materials and HKS, Inc. were deemed silver sponsors for each donating $500.

“I chose the theme and speaker because it has revolutionized building design and construction,” architecture professor Madan Mehta said, who has organized the event since 2002.

The building manufacturers exhibited the building materials and talked to the students.

Architecture alumni Ben Bearden currently works as an architecture representative for the Headwaters Construction Materials. He attended the expo to showcase his company’s design materials and share his knowledge. Bearden has attended the expo for the last three years.

“It is good to come back to support my alma mater,” Bearden said. “It was nice to see my old professors and give the experiences back to students that I had since graduating from UTA.”

Architecture senior James “TJ” Johnston said he learned the entire process of building designing.

“Overall, I enjoyed the event,” Johnston said. “It was informative. I learned a lot about the building materials and the companies, which have sustainable materials. Their products helped me a lot to think where the future might be taken to.”

Originally published in The Shorthorn: http://www.theshorthorn.com/content/view/19146/265/

The first “Sustainability Across the Curriculum Symposium” at ACES, or the Annual Celebration of Excellence by Students, will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday in the Bluebonnet Ballroom.

The free event will feature faculty and graduate students discussing what sustainability means for their disciplines and research.

Information

What: Sustainability Across the Curriculum Symposium
Where: Bluebonnet Ballroom
When: 9 a.m. – noon Thursday
Cost: Free

Open to the public. No reservation required.
For a detailed program schedule visit Mavericks Go Green

The event, organized by the Office of Graduate Studies and the Curriculum, Research and Community Engagement Work Group of the University Sustainability Committee, will foster discussions on sustainability research across different disciplines and highlight the research of UTA faculty and doctoral students.

The symposium extends this year’s OneBook discussions on the theme of sustainability by providing a wide range of topics, perspectives and research projects.

Stacy Alaimo, University Sustainability Committee co-chair, said the program will introduce the meaning of sustainability within different academic disciplines and areas of research.

“In order to develop not only a more sustainable campus, but a more sustainable world,” she said. “We need research and expertise from a wide range of academic perspectives and methods — from engineering and biology to history and new media studies.”

The discussion topics range from environmental engineering to science fiction. Professors and graduate students will give 10 presentations, each lasting 15 minutes.

The presentations will pose questions such as if humans can continue to survive on Earth without decimating other species and the natural systems humans depend on, as well as how to live in ways that cause the least amount of damage to habitats, ecosystems and biodiversity.

Alaimo said the symposium is important for students because all students should be informed about the single most important global issue: sustainability.

“Knowledge of sustainability is crucial for many careers and will become even more important in the future,” Alaimo said.

Biology professor James Grover, a presenter, will talk about research in ecology and how it relates to research on sustainability and environmental issues. Even though ecology is a basic science that studies organisms and their environments, it also encompasses sustainability and issues of human interest, he said.

Grover said he will present a short history on sustainability and show some brief results from his personal research indicating that ecosystems highly impacted by humans are governed by some of the same basic ecological principles as those that are relatively undisturbed.

“The research is important because the human population is so large that it has impacts on all ecosystems and habitats in the world,” he said. “Therefore ecologists have to consider humans and human impacts in the research to preserve essential ecosystem services as the human population continues to grow in the coming decades.”

English graduate student Justin Lerberg serves as a member in the Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Systems work groups and will present “Examining Climate Change Through Nature, Culture, Science and Technology: An Embodied Approach?” which examines climate change through digital media technology.

“Lots of resources are finite,” Lerberg said. “There has to be a broader understanding and action to using the resources. Climate change is the combination of nature and human aspects.”