Research Opportunities

Students in Tyler’s 22 academic disciplines can participate in research opportunities such as architecture and environmental design, art history, city/regional planning and community development, sculpture, and visual studies. 

The Diamond Research Scholars Program provides rising sophomores, juniors and seniors the opportunity to engage in a focused, mentored research or creative arts project during the summer and fall. 

Tyler and Temple University are closely tied to the city of Philadelphia, providing opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in hands-on, collaborative opportunities in the city. The richness of arts practice, architecture, landscape architecture, planning and allied professional fields across the Philadelphia region offers limitless possibilities for experiential learning.

Research Funding

In 2016, the National Science Foundation placed Temple University among the top 100 in terms of research expenditures, which amounted to $242 million. Learn more about the university’s research support efforts.

Facilities and Makerspaces

The Tyler experience is defined in part by access to exceptional facilities. Students have the space, the technology and the tools they need to go wherever their creative vision takes them. 

Tyler’s 255,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility on Temple’s Main Campus is home to makerspaces of all shapes and sizes to support undergraduate students in their studies, including dedicated areas for ceramics, fibers and materials studies, foundations, glass, graphic and interactive design, metals/jewelry/CAD-CAM, painting and drawing, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Other facilities include 

  • an acid room for copper etching; 
  • an 18-station wheel throwing room;  
  • computer studios; 
  • digital fabrication labs; 
  • high-ceilinged, light-drenched painting studios; 
  • hot and cold glass shops; 
  • a media output center; 
  • two large wet labs and darkrooms; and 
  • wood and metal fabrication shops. 

Spaces also include an outdoor classroom, study nooks, café, spacious green courtyard with natural dye garden, exhibition galleries and Temple Contemporary—Tyler's visionary center for exhibitions and public programming. 

Loretta C. Duckworth Scholar’s Studio

The Loretta C. Duckworth Scholar’s Studio at Temple’s Charles Library provides a space for collaborative work and individual research, offering technology for textual analysis, mining big data, working in and creating 3D spaces, geospatial technology, gaming, visualizations, and more. Its makerspace, VR Lab, Specialized Computing Lab and Tech Sandbox provide students with tools to stretch their creativity.

Architecture Facilities 

Architecture programs are housed in a 50,000-square-foot, four-story building with expansive design studios, collaboration labs, classrooms and exhibition spaces—all devoted solely to students in architecture and related disciplines. Students have extensive access to the following facilities.

  • Fabrication tools and printing facilities in labs and studios, including 3D printers, laser cutters, AR/VR design stations, digital routers, woodshop work stations, plotters, printers and more.
  • Additional maker facilities for student experimentation and innovation in Tyler’s adjacent art building, and a large exterior courtyard for classwork and studio projects. 

Tyler’s landscape architecture and horticulture programs are based at Temple’s expansive, suburban Ambler Campus, where students have access to greenhouses, a 187-acre arboretum, an aquaponics lab, a technology center and more. 

Learn more about Tyler’s facilities

Sculpture Facilities

The 16,000-square-foot sculpture studio features the following amenities for students.

  • A wood and metal fabrication shop with saws
  • Hand tools for wood construction
  • Drill presses
  • Grinders
  • Lathe
  • Metal tools for bending, sanding, grinding, cutting, welding and forging
  • Sanders

In addition to a smart classroom and a 1,000-square-foot outdoor assembly pad, the sculpture facilities also have 

  • direct access to the freight elevator;
  • smaller hoists;
  • tool rooms;
  • two, two-ton gantry cranes; and
  • video, sound and projection equipment.