The Puppy paradigm [computational structural engineering course]

"Puppy" is a 12.5-m high flower sculpture in the shape of a White West Highland Terrier. The original Puppy support structure, which was made from wood, wilted with the passage of time, weather and irrigation, so a dismountable stainless steel support was commissioned. Because of its complicated nature and modeling history, the Puppy case study allowed the Australian National University's computational science and engineering (CSE) teaching laboratory to introduce the principles of beam structural analysis and plate analysis in its final-year, one-semester elective course for the Interdisciplinary Systems Engineering degree, and then to let students build a model composed of a combination of plates and beams. Its manifestly 3D geometry also led into the visualization segment of our course in a neat way.