Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
The Barrett creative project in residential structural design serves as the culmination of my most meaningful undergraduate experiences and interests. I previously interned for D.R. Horton, a home builder, and spent a significant amount of time on the development sites and in the engineering management office. This experience sparked a…
The Barrett creative project in residential structural design serves as the culmination of my most meaningful undergraduate experiences and interests. I previously interned for D.R. Horton, a home builder, and spent a significant amount of time on the development sites and in the engineering management office. This experience sparked a curiosity in the design of wood frames for homes and the residential industry as a whole. Since then, I have also had the opportunity to intern for Felten Group, an architecture, engineering, and forensics firm specializing in residential work. A residential roof structure is designed following the American Society of Civil Engineer's Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures design code, in addition to the National Design Standards for Wood Construction manual. Although the sub discipline of wooden structural design can often be disregarded as the simplest type of analysis, I believe that it is a key component of an education in structural engineering. Like all aspects of civil engineering, the design of a house is composed of many interconnected systems, which include the balance of structural integrity and cost, functionality and aesthetics, and light and space. For my creative project, I took these ideas into account when designing both the floor plan and roof structure of the house using Revit and RISA, respectively. Well-rounded engineers are not only technically competent, but they also understand the social dimensions of a problem and how all the systems work together. The project focuses on creating a cohesive representation of a structure as a whole and how the individual frames, trusses, and beams interact with one another using RISA, a structural analysis program. With RISA's 3D interface, I have a better understanding of how more complex structures behave, which I have not gained from my 2D perspective in classes. RISA is used to calculate support reactions and the deflections of the trusses, which are checked against the bearing capacities of the supports and deflection design criteria to ensure a safe design. Concepts such as tributary area, truss connections, and the behavior of girder systems are also explored through the process.
