About

Building Our Future is a five-day residential summer camp run by the Penn State Department of Architectural Engineering — the oldest continuously accredited architectural engineering program in the United States — at the University Park campus. The camp is designed for high school students ages 15 and older who want to understand what actually goes into designing and building high-performance buildings: not architecture in the aesthetic sense, but the technical engineering behind structure, construction, mechanical systems, and lighting that make modern buildings function.

Over five days, students work with Penn State AE faculty representing each of the department's four specializations: structural engineering, construction management, mechanical engineering, and lighting design. Activities include tours of historical architecture on and around campus, hands-on experience with sustainable building technologies, AI applications in construction, and lab visits to Penn State's engineering facilities — which serve as real-world case studies throughout the week. Students stay in Penn State residence halls, eat in campus dining commons, and experience daily life at one of the country's flagship public research universities. The program culminates with a family introduction session on the final day.

Architectural engineering is one of the more underexposed disciplines in pre-college programming — most design camps focus on architecture as an artistic practice, while most engineering camps focus on aerospace, robotics, or computer science. Penn State's camp is among the few that takes the engineering of buildings seriously as a standalone subject, taught by faculty who specialize in exactly that. Enrollment is limited and filled on a first-come-first-served basis; a waitlist is used once the camp fills.