Engineering of Structures Around Us

Get a practical look at basic engineering ideas that apply to structures everywhere—from trees and bones, to bridges and airplanes. We'll dig into how structures actually work, why they're shaped the way they are, how they carry loads, and how forces travel through them.

Understand form and function: Explore funicular shapes and see how ropes and cables handle tension, then learn about columns, arches, and anti-funicular forms to understand how they resist compression. You'll also learn how trusses, beams, and walls take on loads and practice sketching the paths that forces follow through different structures. Along the way, we'll compare different structural forms and systems to answer practical questions such as why an engineer might choose a beam over a truss, how a structure's dimensions change its behavior, and how engineers balance elegance and function when selecting a form.

Have a clearer sense of design and why the world's structures—including natural and biological ones—are designed as they are. You'll be able to conceptually design and build simple structural prototypes and appreciate that engineering involves creativity and innovation in addition to math and science. Plus, you'll gain the skills to identify and compare structural elements, forms, and systems, and to describe the loads a structure will face and the resulting flow of forces through it.

Choose which platform works for you. Offered as a five-course specialization on Coursera and as a single, larger course on edX.