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Dean Weiss ’11 (Potomac, Md.) used his skills as a computer science major to help Kristen Sanford Bernhardt, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, explore new ways to operate and maintain a system of roadways.
This past summer, I worked with Professor Sanford-Bernhardt to further develop a model of the breakdown and repair of roadways. Professor Sanford Bernhardt has been working on this project since 2006 with the aid of other students.
Pavement management systems are relatively new; a true push only began in the late 1970s and states were slow to implement them. However, a pavement management system can significantly reduce the cost of operating and maintaining a system of roadways.
Our model simulates the different groups of people involved in roadway operations and shows how they interact with each other. The model consists of politicians, engineers, the roads themselves, and users. Politicians allocate funds to the engineers who repair the roads. The roads then wear down due to the users who drive on the roads. The model allowed us to determine how changing behaviors, such as the order in which the roads are repaired or how the politicians allocate funding, affects the total effectiveness of repairing the roadways with limited funding.
This project showed me how computer science is applied to other subjects. Not being a civil engineering major but rather a computer science major, I was required to quickly learn about roadways and how they are maintained. In order to successfully suggest improvements to the model and code the proper information, I needed to have an understanding of how each group interacted with the others, which I gained by reading several articles on the subject.
The EXCEL research program provided me with an example of what computer programming is like in industry, something a computer science course might not do. The scale of this project was much larger than that of projects designed to teach a concept. Due to the fact that this project was well developed before I began working on it, I experienced what it was like to work with someone else’s code and have a role in a large, long-term team project – something that would happen in the workplace.
Lafayette’s small size and focus on undergraduate education provided me, as a first-year student, the opportunity to do the type of research that is usually reserved for graduate students at large universities. I also consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to receive the guidance of my programming teacher, Jeffrey Pfaffmann, assistant professor of computer science.