Engineering Now 2009
 
 

Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

Unfortunately, laboratories just don't age like fine wine

When one refers to an early 1930s vintage, one might hope the reference is to a fine wine. But when the reference is made in regard to one of Virginia Tech's main engineering buildings, Patton Hall, the 80-year-old plus status can instead give cause for heartburn.

William Knocke, the head of the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) from 1994 until 2009, spent much of his administrative time dealing with the improvement of facilities for his top-15 ranked undergraduate department. So when the engineering fee allowed him some flexibility, he immediately looked at how he could “gain the most bang for the buck.” The key in each upgrade included “hands-on” work, a vital component of Virginia Tech's teaching philosophy in engineering.

It's unusual for a top-ranked environmental program (15th in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report chart), to not have an environmentally based instrumentation laboratory for undergraduates. “We taught it as a two-dimensional science,” Knocke explained, “but by 2010 the students will be able to perform hands-on process experiments, analyzing such field parameters as stream data and water quality.”

Julie Petruska, CEE's environmental laboratory supervisor, and Mark Widdowson, professor of CEE, developed the plan to renovate the teaching labs on the first floor of Patton Hall. Their ideas modernized two adjacent spaces that facilitated the needs of state-of-the-art teaching labs.

Using its share of the revenue from the engineering fees, CEE was also able to purchase concrete compression test equipment that allows twice as many undergraduate students to work in the materials testing lab, directed by Tommy Cousins, CEE professor. These concrete cylinders with various curing times are “loaded” until a failure occurs, teaching the CEE majors through hands-on experimentation about engineering principles as they relate to materials, structures, failure, and load.

The CEE measurements class, with an enrollment of some 400 students per academic year, also benefitted greatly from the undergraduate engineering fee. Randy Dymond, a CEE professor who has won numerous teaching awards from his students, said the fee allowed the purchase of new surveying instruments that permit the undergraduate students to measure distances, existing terrains, buildings, sidewalks — just about anything in its line of sight.

Worried about the large number of students, Dymond and his colleague, Jeff Connor of engineering education, selected a manufacturer that provided the best learning opportunities for the undergraduates. They found one company that was acceptable for both the large classroom environment and the smaller hands-on laboratory work. After the students meet in a lecture class and view what they would be learning on computer screens, they will move on the labs for the practical work, similar to what they will find after graduation.

“We divide everyone into eight labs, 24 students per lab. We have the 24 divide into six groups of four. So only four people at a time are using one surveying instrument, thus optimizing the learning time,” and providing a quality learning environment, Dymond explained. “The students are now working with up-to-date equipment that they will also see when they get jobs.”

“It is difficult to find someone who will contribute the $300,000 necessary to renovate instructional labs,” Knocke admitted. The engineering fee “allows us to address needs we would otherwise have to ignore.”