Educators' Workshop on Masonry at University of South Florida a Success

The 2018 Masonry Educators’ Workshop (MEW), which was held March 11-13 at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida, was a great success, drawing 25 total attendees from North America. Dr. Rajan Sen, Professor and Jefferson Science Fellow at USF, served as Workshop Host and the workshop was facilitated by The Masonry Society with the support of a number of financial sponsors including the Masonry Association of Florida, the Florida Concrete and Products Association, the International Masonry Institute, the National Concrete Masonry Association, the Portland Cement Association, Oldcastle Zephyrhills Architectural Block and Segmental Retaining Wall Production Plant. Other Contributing Organizations included the Brick Industry Association (BIA) as well as a number of organizations that sponsored travel of attending educators.

The Masonry Educators’ Workshop built on the success of more than 25 past workshops (formerly called the University Professors’ Masonry Workshop) which provided a forum for faculty who are teaching masonry, or will be teaching masonry, to learn about the design, specification, construction, and evaluation of masonry, while also providing the masonry industry with ideas on resources needed by educators and students. Effective and innovative ways to teach this information to students were discussed. Formal and informal discussions took place throughout the workshop allowing attendees to learn about masonry design and construction, while obtaining answers to their questions. Presentations were given related to exposing students to masonry, improving masonry education, available teaching resources, and masonry design, detailing, construction, evaluation and repair. Major highlights of the MEW included:

An excellent Keynote Address on Educating, Inspiring and Engaging Young Designers by Beverely Frank of B. Frank Architects
A discussion on Why Masonry is So Important in Florida by Don Beers, MAF and FC&PA
A presentation on the past use of masonry, current uses, and projections on how it will and may be used in future years by Brian Trimble of the International Masonry Institute
An informative tour of the Oldcastle Zephyrhills Architectural Block and Segmental Retaining Wall Production Plant
A Masonry Wall Building Demonstration which allowed attendees a chance to lay concrete masonry units
Concurrent sessions on Incorporating Masonry into the Curriculum by Patrick Rand, North Carolina State University for educating architecture students and by Ece Erdogmus, University of Nebraska–Lincoln for educating engineering students.
Several Panel Discussions on new masonry products and resources, that featured response to questions from the attendees. These sessions were well received and allowed more discussion between attendees and masonry industry representatives.
Jerry Painter presented ideas on Method to Improve and Facilitate Constructability of Masonry Projects, that included tips for faculty and young designers
A Session on Innovative Approaches to Masonry Education was given and offered numerous ideas on how to enhance classes using practical, hands-on learning
Concurrent Sessions were given on Masonry Detailing by Pat Rand of NC State University and Structural Masonry Design by Richard Bennett of the University of Tennessee
What Students need to know about Historic Masonry, Craig Bennett

The Masonry Society has developed a “post-Workshop” website for attendees to provide additional resources and to allow them to share thoughts and ideas.

Major sponsors include: