Bowling Green, Ky. - The latest teaching tool for Western Kentucky University engineering students isn’t in a classroom. It isn’t even in a building.

It’s a 10-foot by 8-foot sculpture that consists of a single column with four “spokes” cantilevering off at two levels. And it weighs more than 2,000 pounds.

The steel connection sculpture, which adorns the lawn near the Complex for Engineering and Biological Sciences, was dedicated Wednesday. The brief ceremony kicked off the annual design exposition by freshman engineering students.

"It’s a great learning tool,” Blaine Ferrell, dean of the Ogden College of Science and Engineering, said. “It has over 40 connections that students can study, look at and see first hand that they wouldn’t have had before. And like this building, it doesn’t really have a classroom in it, but everything in it you learn from.”

WKU engineering students were involved in the planning and sub-assembly, thereby creating an additional learning experience. WKU’s sculpture was manufactured by Stupp Bros., Inc., which operates a bridge fabrication facility in Bowling Green. Reuben Netherland, vice president and general manager of the Bowling Green plant, was recognized at the dedication for the company’s continued support of the engineering program.

Woosely Brothers Painting of Bowling Green provided the WKU red finish for the sculpture.

The steel connection sculpture was originally conceived by Duane Ellifrit of the University of Florida and was intended to demonstrate the various ways that steel framed structures are connected. The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is the primary organization charged with supporting and promoting the use of steel in constructed facilities and has assisted more than 130 universities with their own versions of the sculpture.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For more information, contact Doug Schmucker, (270) 745-2005.