Engineers who graduate today are smart and tech savvy …but may not have a feel for what the numbers on the computer really mean.
The Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado – a top engineering school in the U.S. – has coursework you could call “surveying for engineers.” Its sophomore civil engineering students are all required to do a three-week field session where they go into the real (physical) world, collect data …and then go onto the computer.
Says Jeff Holley, a Mines civil engineering professor, “We want to get engineering students out there tromping in the dirt, collecting notes and data in the field, and then coming back and doing the white collar cubicle work.” Holley says this teaches students how to collect better data in the field, input it into computer software, then learn how to do more complex data collection, and finally, design the actual project. The school uses SOLIDWORKS 3D design software as part of the foundation of its curriculum, helping students bring their conceptual ideas to life.
“The very last step is to take the information back out into the field and do some actual construction right up to where the tractor will move,” says Holley.
Holley himself worked in the private industry as a civil engineer for 25 years before coming to Mines to teach. “If you have two designers on a computer, and they’re equally good, the one who’s been out on the production floor is more valuable. The one who’s been out on the asphalt or in the dirt has experienced real world anecdotes.” Getting out into the field also gives students a chance to recognize firsthand what they’ve studied in books, or heard in classroom lectures.
The CAD industry itself is evolving dramatically. It’s gone from simple drafting in the late ’80s to the complex engineering calculations we have today. Decades ago, the person using CAD was a draftsman. Today, they’re a designer or engineer.
A student’s view
Jonathan Chestnut is one of Professor Holley’s students. “Going out into the field made what we did on the computer a lot easier to understand.” He says it also taught them how to make their design work ‘communicate’ better, and appear more professional. “You want to make sure someone sees everything you want them to see, and the important stuff is readily accessible. Out in the field, we also learned how to come back with our data and information and make it more presentable and more visual on the computer.”
Cal Poly is another top engineering school with a focus on hands-on training. Dr. Robert Bertini quotes a favorite mentor, the late Bill Kloos who worked for the Portland Office of Transportation, who was fond of saying, “To be outstanding in your field, you have to spend time out standing in the field.”
“To be outstanding in your field, you have to spend
time out standing in the field.” – the late Bill Kloos
Bertini was recently on a two-week trip in the Netherlands with civil engineering students who are focusing on transportation. “In transportation, the Netherlands has spent the past 40+ years perfecting the design and implementation of their transportation, so it’s important for our students to see the systems first hand, meet the planners and designers – as well as the users – and bring those lessons home to the U.S.”
An employer’s view
Alex Cabezon, recruiting manager at BKF Engineers in Redwood City, Calif.
says they bring in college interns every summer and make field work a priority. “Once you’re a full-time engineer, it’s harder to get out in the field. You can’t manufacture field visits; you need an actual reason to go out there. People get so busy, even as an entry level engineer.”
And what does fieldwork teach these future engineers?
“I think more than anything, a confirmation that what you’re designing actually works. For example, you’re designing some kind of draining system, and water will go somewhere to drain. A good field visit would be to go out when it’s raining, and how see how well that water is going into the storm drain.” He adds, “Sometimes, just seeing how the construction has been done is an eye opener. It’s one thing to design it, another to construct it.”
Dassault Systèmes is an active supporter of engineering education across the globe. More than 2 million licenses of SOLIDWORKS Education Edition are now being used in educational institutions around the world, helping students learn core engineering skills on the world’s most popular 3D design platform. Learn more by visiting our SOLIDWORKS in Academia home page.
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