Clemson’s Timber Design Development Workshop Helps Faculty Expand Wood Design Education and Opens Pathways for Research and Collaboration
As interest in lower-carbon wood solutions accelerates across U.S. engineering programs, wood education remains critically underrepresented in postsecondary programs. A National Council of Structural Engineers Associations survey revealed that only 52% of U.S. civil engineering programs include wood design, and often only as an elective or a minor part of a hybrid course. As part of its ongoing efforts to close that gap, Clemson’s Timber Design Faculty Development Workshop emphasized the full value chain of light-frame and mass timber construction, from sustainable forestry to lumber production and glulam fabrication.
“This workshop provided practical tools and insights into timber design that I can immediately bring back to my students,” said Baolin Wan, an Associate Professor at Marquette University. “There were also lots of fun activities outside of class!”
Blending classroom rigor with field immersion and hands-on experience, participating faculty members embarked on nine structured sessions, campus building tours, and off-site demonstrations, guided by nationally recognized instructors, including John Lawson of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; Mikhail Gershfeld of Cal Poly, Pomona; Andre Barbosa of Oregon State University; Weichiang Pang and Dustin Albright of Clemson; and Pat Layton of Clemson’s WU+D.
Going beyond the traditional focus on what instructors should teach, the workshop launched with a deep dive on how to teach wood design. Through expert-led sessions, faculty learned how to map out a syllabus anchored to the National Design Specification and 2024 International Building Code amendments; explored proven approaches for light-frame analysis and code compliance; examined international case studies on wood buildings and bridges; re-sequenced their own courses with hands-on student learning; and discussed how cross-disciplinary coordination and joint architecture-engineering studios can accelerate student learning.
Building on the curriculum work, faculty shifted their focus for a detailed session on gravity, lateral, and seismic design for CLT and glulam systems before heading to Clemson’s structural labs to observe full-scale load testing of screwed glulam connections. Then, they traveled to the Andy Quattlebaum Outdoor Recreation Center—which features exposed CLT floors, decks, and shear walls—and the in-progress Forestry and Environmental Conservation building for real-world validation of system selection, connection design, and construction process efficiencies.
The final day featured an immersive tour of the 17,500-acre Clemson Experimental Forest, which serves as a living laboratory for sustainable forestry practices. There, faculty explored the link between responsible forestry management, lumber-grade variability, and carbon accounting, and had the opportunity to follow the raw timber material downstream to Timberlab’s Greenville fabrication facility.
“This workshop provided everything I needed to confidently offer this class in my institution,” said Bruno Guidio of The Catholic University of America.
Beyond classroom strategy, Clemson’s Timber Design Faculty Development Workshop opened new pathways for research and collaboration by connecting professors to a nationwide network of wood experts, funding leads, and partnering institutions so they can prepare students—and their own labs—for the next wave of wood engineering challenges.
The workshop provided participants with turnkey teaching resources—syllabi, problem sets, project briefs, and exam templates—and direct exposure to practitioner-led case studies that translate code provisions and connection details into real-world solutions for both light-frame and mass timber construction.
