At that time the school had design courses in
steel, concrete, pre-stressed concrete and timber,
and eventually recognized the need to include
an option for masonry. Myers notes that this laid
the foundation for all the future masonry design
courses that were to come. A few years later his
colleague, Professor Mohamed ElGawady
developed an advanced structural masonry class,
which was offered as a graduate level and
intended to build on the first masonry design
course addition.
Another benefit Missouri S&T offers aside from its
high-quality engineering education is the ability to
take what are called “distant education
courses,” which allows practicing engineers to
enroll without being a full-time student. Myers is
an advocate of this program and elaborates on its
benefits in the interview.
“We’ve had a number of people in the industry
that want to learn more about masonry design
and have taken it as a distant education course.
So you can take it as a stand-alone course or
individuals can work towards a four-course
certificate degree, which is considered a degree
between an undergraduate degree and a
master’s degree. Once they complete the
four-course certificate degree they can go on to
complete a ten-course non-thesis master’s
degree through the web-based program that we
call distant education. Students can watch
courses live alongside with the on campus
22 | Masonry Design
students or the archived versions in the web
library.”
The last course Myers describes is one he
personally teaches himself called Infrastructure
Strengthening with Composites and is focused
on strengthening and repair. It examines how
modern composites can be utilized to upgrade
or repair both masonry and concrete structures.
The course presents composite materials and
includes principles of reinforcing and
strengthening for flexure, shear, and ductility
enhancement in buildings and bridges. It covers
the design of existing members strengthened with
externally bonded laminates and near
surface mounted composites. Missouri S&T is
one of the few universities in the country that
offers this depth of masonry.
TIMELESS METHODS, ARCHITECTURE,
AND EDUCATION
A type of construction that continues to be used
all around the world will always prove worthy of
advancement. Masonry, is arguably one of the
oldest and most common types of construction,
is so pertinent to the society we live in. These
materials have been veritably used time and time
again as aesthetic, as structure, and as a pure
function for their clean forms and durable material
properties.