Professor Maria Garlock considers engineering a form of art. Her current research explores coastal protection solutions like canopies and bridges that transform into flood barriers — structures that combine elegance and resilience.

She teaches a course, “Structures and the Urban Environment,” that encourages students to examine the structural performance of bridges and towers along with their aesthetic qualities and social context.

“The engineer can be an artist in their own right,” said Garlock, the Daniel Tsui Professor in Engineering and a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Students get to think about what beauty is … to think beyond the equations and the formulas, about the culture and people — all these things are really important to bring into an engineered design.”

The course, known informally as “Bridges,” builds on the foundation of the late professor David Billington ’50, who first taught the course in 1974.