The Art of Structural Engineering: Vaults

First about me. I’m a retired 71 year old mechanical engineer who has a love of everything engineering. It’s been a rewarding experience to attempt this course. I’ve finished as much as I can do without assistance from the course staff. My score is 70% unassisted. I’m seeking staff help with one structural study because I do not have the tools at hand and a manual solution is possible.
Second if you are not a student/practising/retired mathematician, physicist, engineer or architect you’ll struggle to complete everything in this course. The Calculation Exercises will be too difficult.
Third I recommend you do the course and skip the Calculation Exercises. So what if you cannot quantitatively analyse long span roofs, there’s still lots of qualitative enrichment from doing this course. For me the highlight of this course was learning about the gifted structural engineers who pioneered the design and construction of long span roofs by manual calculation and laboratory experiment.

Perhaps one of the best MOOC courses for seasoned engineers and structures enthusiasts alike. I loved every minute of it!

The course is based on the material and life work of the legendary Professor Billington and is superbly organised, presented and conveyed by Prof. Maria Garlcok. Prior knowledge is not required to enjoy it, but if you happen to be an engineer you will appreciate a bit more the content. Apart from the direct knowledge-sharing, the course comprised a portal to a wealth of information for further study.

As a professional engineer with a passion for history, I found the course exciting and caught myself visiting edX many times per week looking for more. It should be a prerequisite in every under-and-post graduate engineering school, as it promotes equally all three principles of engineering, namely efficiency, economy and elegance.
If you want more you can enrol on the Bridges Princeton's course, by the same team.

Well done and, please, do more like this!

Amazing course. I loved everything of it, from the lectures to the structural studies. It is indeed a course open to all, whether you are an engineer or a fan of structures. With the videos, you can study in a very visual manner, with explanations and animations appropriate to the topic and with facts that will tie better your interest with the new knowledge.
A personal favorite and I look forward to the third part of this series.
I am from Ecuador and here we speak spanish. I have a very good level of english so it was easy to follow this course. However, if you are not very good at english, you can always turn on the subtitles, pause and try to listen again. This course is an excelente opportunity to practice listening and writing. The audio is perfect, the visuals are on-point and you will always find an explanation for new words or you can read them in the glossary present before every lecture.

I would like to congratulate Professor Garlock, her colleagues and the course team for developing the excellent content presented in this course "The Art of Structural Engineering: Vaults".

The course content was enjoyable, practical and to the right level of detail for the online presentation. I am a structural engineer by background but working in senior management for quite sometime. This course provided me the opportunity to refresh my knowledge of the basics as well as the inspiration to keep thinking outside the box for coming up with innovative structural solutions which are not only constructible and cost-effective but also aesthetically pleasing.

The course structure and assessment requirements were clearly mapped out and the combination of theoretical and numerical assignments was brilliant . The study materials were easily accessible and comprehensible and very well presented. Feedback was available from the staff.

After completing this course, I am really keen to know if more comprehensive and detailed online structural engineering courses developed and taught by Professor Garlock and the team are available through EdX and/or Princeton online.

I loved this course. I am an art history teacher and theorist from New Zealand and have taken many MOOCs that allow access to internationally respected institutions. Maria is fantastic. She is respectful and engaging and has great course content. While the mathematical problems were more challenging, I was grateful to have information on hand that made a non- maths graduate feel comfortable enough to conquer the challenge. From a humanities background, I loved the way this course explores and highlights social-cultural aspects alongside the structural engineering foundations of the content. I am now working through Maria's first course on bridges and look forward with great anticipation to her third course on buildings - a passion of mine. The other great thing about these courses is not only Maria's knowledge but the way she is able to draw on guest speakers from across the world who are equally qualified and bring their knowledge to the table. Seriously, set aside around two hours per week, which is more than adequate, and join this course. And a personal thank you, Maria, for your content, commitment, teaching style and well- structured course.