Schools offering Revit at any Level [Archive]

zanzibarbob7

2006-05-11, 08:31 PM

Andre,

I tried to get the University of Maine to look at Revit and even arranged a demo. They may do it in 2007 but the attitude is so entrenched that they are trying to limit the students with computers. Many are starting rebel and doing at least Sketchup because its easy and free.

I also visited a user group in Bangor and the community college there, EMCC, is evaluating their program every year. They teach Revit there and are asking for it at KVCC in Waterville, another community college. That's progress.

I have had many of the students talk to me but have little patience with "out of touch" professors. It's like talking to a wall but then, "If you can't do, teach."

Besides, I have my own affairs to attend to, and I never get bogged down for lack of enthusiasm.

dkriete

2006-05-11, 08:48 PM

We are teaching Revit here in the Architectural Drafting program at Hennepin Technical College. Starting this fall it will be one of the required '3D' options, although most students are eager to learn it. This would be a basics class. We are planning an Advanced class which will focus primarily on familie creation.

Clyne Curtis

2006-05-11, 09:19 PM

Here at Brigham Young University we don't have an Architectural program, but teach Revit in our Construction Management program. The students turn out some amazing work in a short amount of time! I would say basic to intermediate level.

Clyne

Andre Baros

2006-05-16, 06:08 PM

Um, that's it? There must be more programs.

Wanderer

2006-05-16, 10:52 PM

hmm... someone posted on the adesk discussion groups, a list of schools teaching revit... I think it was in the new revit systems forum... lemmee go see...
Um, that's it? There must be more programs.

narlee

2006-05-16, 11:23 PM

Boston Architectural Center www.the-bac.edu.

According to a headhunter in this area, Revit ain't so big around Boston (isn't that ironic, given that the Factory is in Waltham), but is big in NYC (maybe because the Freedom tower is being done on it).

Andre Baros

2006-05-17, 01:33 AM

According to our reseller, it's caught on like wildfire here in Chicago, but none of the schools are teaching it.

Wes Macaulay

2006-05-17, 04:10 AM

The British Columbia Institute of Technology will be offering a Revit course this fall. www.bcit.ca (http://www.bcit.ca) -- but I don't think it's listed anywhere yet!

Dimitri Harvalias

2006-05-17, 04:48 AM

Kwantlen College, also in BC, will also be offering Revit based instruction as part of the curriculum in their new campus. Scheduled to open fall 2006.

Andre Baros

2006-05-17, 05:26 AM

I've also found that a lot of schools have Revit available for students to use, but no trainers or faculty who know the program to support them, let alone someone to explain to students what Revit is or isn't.

Wanderer

2006-05-17, 04:48 PM

right. looking at this list (http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=461868)that was posted I see...
either teaching Revit Building in a design studio, BIM course or are making it available to their students
73 Universities/Colleges in North America
163 High Schools in North America

I've also found that a lot of schools have Revit available for students to use, but no trainers or faculty who know the program to support them, let alone someone to explain to students what Revit is or isn't.

Clyne Curtis

2006-05-17, 05:19 PM

Hey Melanie!

I am re-posting this link to the Student Engineering and Design Community because the list of pilot universities has about quadrupled since last posted. And of course...ahem...BYU is right there near the top!!

http://students1.autodesk.com/

Clyne

Wanderer

2006-05-17, 05:21 PM

sweet! nice to see it growing... can it still be called a pilot if so many are involved? ;-p
Hey Melanie!

I am re-posting this link to the Student Engineering and Design Community because the list of pilot universities has about quadrupled since last posted. And of course...ahem...BYU is right there near the top!!

http://students1.autodesk.com/

Clyne

zglt

2006-05-17, 07:27 PM

Martin Luther King- Magnet High School in Nashville, TN teaches Revit in their advanced placement architectural design class.

Brian Myers

2006-05-17, 07:33 PM

According to our reseller, it's caught on like wildfire here in Chicago, but none of the schools are teaching it.

It does have a larger User base in Chicago than some cities, especially since Taylor Tech is pushing it like mad. Oddly, for the Architectural city Chicago is, they seem to have few "name" College/University Architectural programs that I know of..

DanielleAnderson

2006-05-17, 08:03 PM

Martin Luther King- Magnet High School in Nashville, TN teaches Revit in their advanced placement architectural design class.

Just out of curiosity, ZGLT, is there an AP test that goes with this class? It would be quite interesting to see what the curiculum is...

Chad Smith

2006-05-17, 08:28 PM

I was impressed when our newest office drafting junior who has been with us for 2 weeks now, said that his high school here in Brisbane was teaching Revit :shock:. Very Cool.

gbrowne

2006-05-18, 07:42 AM

I have been told that its taught in a college near Glasgow in Scotland.

I have also been told that the students love it!

Scott_Bloss

2006-05-18, 11:11 AM

here is a list of colleges that i recieved a few days ago, it only covers North America.

JamesVan

2006-05-19, 02:20 AM

I teach Revit Professional Level I at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at NYU. I'm taking the Summer off, but will be back in the Fall.

http://www.scps.nyu.edu/departments/course.jsp?courseId=64581

Wanderer

2006-05-19, 05:14 PM

dang. my old college is now teaching revit... lucky dogs... I had to take adt when I went there ~gah!~ (ftr - that was like the first release of adt, I'm sure it's *much* easier to use in it's current form)

so... hmm, no college in missouri teaching it?

here is a list of colleges that i recieved a few days ago, it only covers North America.

luigi

2006-05-19, 08:20 PM

I see in that list only 3 schools from Michigan, and only 1 of them has an accredited Architectural degree...

Well, next year (2006-2007), 2nd term at the University of Detroit Mercy in Michigan (holding an accredited architectural master program) will be introducing Revit in its curriculum. But the class will be for half of a term. Although it is little, with the right push, it could quickly become more popular and take over the 3dstudio class. In my opinion, learning to build architectural models in 3dstudio viz is a little of a waste of time, since the information is lost from design into ConDoc's. The time spent on Building the Vitual Model, for design decision and renderings, can be done in Revit, so the phase from SD to DD to CD can be seemless.

I was asked to take part of the teaching staff for the computer classes, focusing on Revit (since the other staff members have limited experience with Revit). We'll see how that proceeds.

Take care,

Luigi

Wes Macaulay

2006-05-19, 08:26 PM

DanielleAnderson

2006-05-19, 08:55 PM

Dimitri (HCSL) and I will be putting together the new Revit course for BCIT -- and I expect it will be a lot of work :shock:

But I'm looking forward to putting together a program that teaches Revit concepts as efficiently as possible; it's something I've always wanted to do.

That's awesome Wes! Perhaps you guys can put on a road show and come a little further south. Revit helpers are very limited down here (or at least it seems to be).

dpollard909366

2006-05-19, 09:18 PM

I went to Virginia Tech where there is minimal emphasis on teaching software skills. Studio was more about making design second nature. I imagine alot of schools are still like that and any revit or cad courses are essentially extracurricular.

If firms want to hire revit capable students fresh out of architecture school, at this point they might have to bite the bullet and pay for training.

Trade and tech schools probably produce better revit monkeys if that's what you're searching for.

Andre Baros

2006-05-19, 09:50 PM

We're not looking for Revit monkeys, quite the contrary, we would like people who can take a project and run with it, including drawing it. Maybe this doesn't happen on day one, but as soon as they're ready. Our concern now is simply summer interns. It's a bit harder to justify the expense of 1 month of training for someone who's only working for you for 3 months. We can always hire people to make photo copies and cut chip-board, but to get them meaningfully involved in projects as we prefer, they have to be able to draft.

It's a bit odd to have a summer intern design a building on trace or in form-Z because those are the only tools they know and then have a partner in the firm draw it in Revit because they're the ones with the production skills.

zanzibarbob7

2006-05-20, 11:52 AM

dpollard,

I think that just having design taught in schools, without the support of tools used in the architectural practice is a cop out. After all, its getting what is in your mind onto the page, whatever tool that is. Might just as well dig in and learn all tools as you go along.

My observation is that the professors are not trained in any of the latest methods and really have no interest in learning them. Far easier to just spout theory and tell the students they will have to get the practical knowledge later and elsewhere. One of the reasons they don't want to see students use computers very much is because they can't offer the student practical help on getting his/her idea worked out on the computer.

You don't want the computer to control your design but you don't want to be limited in any other area either. I've said this before, but you don't learn ice hockey from a book and expect to make the team, you have to gets skates and a stick, fall on your rear end, flail around, until you finally get it. Otherwise you might just as well teach in studio because you would be exposed in a real world architectural practice.

My opinion is that they only have real world architects teaching whom can offer a direct tie in with actual practice. The idea that you can't learn both design and your computer skills in conjunction is the easy way out and can be done if you set your mind to it. Think of the time you spent hand rendering and cutting foam core. Could some of that time be spent developing other skills. I think so.

dpollard909366

2006-05-23, 02:12 AM

Zanzibarbob - I am intrigued by the discussion of teaching specific software courses in arch school. I never felt like my school was blind to the reality that you must know different cad programs to actually get a job in the real world. I graduated in '03 and no cad training courses were offered by our college at that time, but somehow everyone still knew autocad to some degree. Everyone that I know has been successful at excelling with Autocad, Revit, Archicad, or vector works, without any college training.

I feel like we were successful becuse we were taught to have a passion for embracing and learning different design tools wheher it be woodshop, rhino, photography, or sketch.

Besides, once you spend all of that time in arch school learning autocad, or cadkey '95, its could be useless when your firm requires vector works and you have to reset your thinking. Understanding design process and a passion to learn will never be obsolete.

Andre - I think that you have an interesting point with regards to training summer interns. You work for a great firm, and if I were looking for a summer intern for you, I would want one that respects your firm and wants to work to learn as much as possible from you guys.

Therefore I would find the best potential student and demand that they learn as much of revit as they can in the 30 day trial before they start working. On his/her first day you can learn alot about their motives and passion with how much they have learned and dedicated to learning the software and how it works. I think you limit your employee pool by only selecting from kids that are taking 3 hour arch courses in Revit. (Even though I know you aren't only looking for Revit monkeys)

Thats my two cents. Thanks for the discussion.

dp

Andre Baros

2006-05-23, 06:27 AM

Dave, the idea of getting people to play with the 30 day trial is interesting. We're also exploring paying for a three day crash course for summer interns and providing support for IIT or UIC students who choose to use Revit for their course work. I totally agree that the priority needs to be on a passion for learning and came out of that same process myself. Still, I'm curious if (for example) the digital studio's (insert name of todays hot school here) are still stuck on Maya and Form-Z or if there are digital studios exploring architecture through the lens of Revit. Looking back at my own school work, it was heavily influenced and sometimes limited by my choice of tools. Revit clearly comes with it's own set of limits, but also some learning opportunities that other programs don't offer...

acrumpton

2009-09-23, 12:31 PM

patricks

2009-09-23, 01:47 PM

At Mississippi State University, in the Interior Design Program, we teach Revit to our 2nd year students, so they are reqiured to use the program - in conjunction with CAD, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and hand drawing - for their final two years of design studio classes.

Ah yes, my co-worker is one of the interior designers teaching Revit there at MSU. She usually teaches classes in the Spring semester to upper class students.

I graduated the Mississippi State University's College of Architecture program in 2004. When I was in my 4th year in Fall 2002, I remember one of the professors (Michael Berk) trying out Revit with a few of the students (not with me lol). I would guess they were using version 3 or 4 at the time.

We had a couple of summer interns at my office this summer, one from Mississippi State, and he already had the student version of Revit on his laptop, although I don't know the extent they are teaching Revit-specific courses these days.

csoderlund

2009-11-25, 10:25 PM

I graduated from Sacramento State University in 2007, they require REVIT courses for an Interior Architecture Degree.

SCShell

2009-11-26, 02:07 PM

Hey there,

Well, Tucson is behind the curve....as usual; however, I am aware of two schools here. Pima Community College is offering a beginning level course in the Spring and another Tech School here has offered me a possition to start a Revit program. I am still thinking about it.
The U of A of course wants no part of Revit. (That is why there are trade schools)

Good luck
Steve

jeffh

2009-11-27, 03:06 PM

The U of A of course wants no part of Revit. (That is why there are trade schools)

Good luck
Steve

Colleges are where the real potential of Revit can be explored. If it is being used OLNY as a documentation tool then you are only scratching the surface. I recently saw a presentation by a Harvard prof. on "Algorithmic Architecture" very cool stuff. Very practical approach to computational design.

http://www.amazon.com/Kostas-Terzidis/e/B001HD119S/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

SCShell

2009-11-27, 03:21 PM

Colleges are where the real potential of Revit can be explored. Very practical approach to computational design.

I could not agree more!!!! Try telling that to a bunch of "academic snobs" with PHD's.
I washed my hands with these people. The Dean is the only one with vision; however, I think that she is being fought every inch of the way against "technology". They still profess Maylines & cutting strathmore.

See you at AU
Steve

jeffh

2009-11-28, 03:09 PM

See you at AU

I am not going to be at AU this year. :-( Have fun without me though.

AP23

2009-11-28, 11:03 PM

Colleges are where the real potential of Revit can be explored. If it is being used OLNY as a documentation tool then you are only scratching the surface. I recently saw a presentation by a Harvard prof. on "Algorithmic Architecture" very cool stuff. Very practical approach to computational design.

http://www.amazon.com/Kostas-Terzidis/e/B001HD119S/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

I think colleges are willing to use Revit if it could handle to projects types (algoritmic architecture) given in studio. Unfortunately, that is not the case and therefore it's not strange that they resort to non-architectural software like Maya and Rhino as their main tool.

jeffh

2009-11-29, 04:57 AM

I think colleges are willing to use Revit if it could handle to projects types (algoritmic architecture) given in studio. Unfortunately, that is not the case and therefore it's not strange that they resort to non-architectural software like Maya and Rhino as their main tool.

The stuff presented in Professor Terzidis's work/presentation has NOTHING to do with complex form finding. It is a very practical application of "algorithmic architecture". Expression of form is only a portion of what "Architecture" is.

timothy.bungert

2009-12-02, 06:30 PM

North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND is a 5-year Master of Architecture program. They introduce Revit to students in their 2nd year "Architecture Technology" class, and then use it in a classroom setting in more detail in the 3rd year "Architectural Detailing" class. The majority of students become very familiar with the program by the end of their 3rd year. Most have stopped using SketchUp almost completely in favor of Revit's integrated massing-to-building tools.

I was the Teaching Assistant for the Detailing class for two years. We made the decision to completely stop teaching any type of CAD software in favor of immersing students in BIM.