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A group of senior civil engineering students have spent the semester working on a project that could benefit future Lafayette students for years to come.
Under the guidance of Mary J.S. Roth ’83, professor and head of civil and environmental engineering, the senior design class is developing plans for a new student project center. The center would meet the needs of engineering students and those in honors programs.
“This is a very realistic type of engineering project involving architecture, structure, soil, and surface water issues,” Roth says. “We’re combining many of the disciplines [senior civil engineering majors] learned about in their courses.”
The class presented its plans to Lafayette President Dan Weiss on May 4. The presentation included plans for the decaying retaining wall between Acopian Engineering Center and Watson Hall, near the location where the project center is proposed. Built more than 50 years ago, the wall shows significant wear.
Roth divided the class into three teams and assigned each a specific task. All the teams concluded the retaining wall should be torn down.
Though she knows the cost of construction and removal of the retaining wall is prohibitive right now, Roth believes the plans give Lafayette exciting possibilities for the future.
“It is an area of campus that is not highly visible and certainly is not being efficiently used,” she says. “If you needed more space, that might be an area to look at.”
The class also examined the conceptual design, how the center would blend with Watson Hall, and whether it is a necessary addition. Students surveyed members of the mechanical and civil & environmental engineering departments to determine need.
The experience is helping Rich Connors ’06 (Manchester, Conn.) prepare for the challenges ahead when he begins his engineering career with a geotechnical consulting company in New Jersey.
“What’s nice about it is it makes you consider everything that goes into a design project,” he says. “For individual classes, where you’re just dealing with one kind of example problem, you don’t see how it relates to an actual project. In this case, there are a lot of real-world ideas that go into consideration.”
Jack Murphy ’06 (Easton, Pa.), a non-traditional student who has a degree in secondary education/mathematics, also will join a New Jersey engineering firm after graduation. The challenge of sizing beams, girders, and columns for construction and passing the information along to his teammates is a valuable learning experience. Practical exercises, such as checking local zoning regulations, provide additional benefit.
“I think the design class is extremely important in the sense that it gives students an actual design problem,” he says. “We’re taking what we’ve learned and applying it to a possible real-life problem. Just doing examples in a regular engineering class, you don’t get the full idea of what can happen in the real world.”
Roth was recently named an ACE Fellow by the American Council on Education. She received a Fulbright grant to study with scientists at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo, in 2000-01. In 2002, she received an NSF grant for research on improving methods of investigating sites located in sinkhole areas.
One of Roth’s top priorities as an educator is including students in her research projects. She has co-authored more than 15 articles and conference papers with student researchers. Roth was named Engineer of the Year for 2000 by the Lehigh Valley chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers and 1999 Engineer of the Year by the Lehigh Valley section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She is a past recipient of Lafayette’s Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award and James P. Crawford Award.