Real World Engineering Experiences

The traditional undergraduate engineering curriculum does not offer much opportunity for students to practice the knowledge learned in their coursework directly in situations that represent the type of work they might be asked to do when entering the professional job market. In 2007, UGA began new B.S. and M.S. degree programs in Environmental Engineering. These programs have Sustainable Development as a primary focus, and put a heavy emphasis on long-term, application-oriented case studies and projects within the curricula. Graduating engineers will need to know how to function as practicing engineers in their jobs. A UGA professor in biological and agricultural engineering worked to establish contacts with local industries and within the UGA physical plant facilities, engineering groups and the Office of University Architects to explore potential class projects that could be integrated into courses taught within BAE. Types of projects selected are typically ones that would represent situations a consulting engineer may be asked to help solve. Students in ENGR 4650 (HVAC) visited the Baldor Motor plant in Athens to witness a problem they had in one of the aluminum melt furnace rooms. The new ENGR 4660 course (“Sustainable Building Design”) has, as a core part of the course, students working as teams assisting in the design or analysis of three sustainable design projects around Athens and in the region. Potential collaborations for future projects and case studies for the UGA engineering programs, in particular the Environmental Engineering program, are being investigated with people and organizations across the nation and world.