Proposal

The Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatics Engineering (CEGE) currently offers courses with hands-on laboratory experiences and exposure to state of the art instruments and engineering tools that are used in the field by professionals.  The mobile hydro-meteorological observation systems which can be operated both in the laboratory and in the field will have direct benefit to about 120 engineering students per year in the current existing courses (CWR4202: Hydrologic Engineering; SUR3141: Automated Surveying and Mapping; ENV3001C: Environmental Science and Engineering; CGN4803C and CGN4804C: Civil Engineering Design 1 and 2). Students from a number of courses of Geoscience and other Engineering programs at FAU will also benefit from such a mobile observational system.

Mobile hydrometeorological observation systems equipped with wireless data communication, measure air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed, rainfall, solar radiation and surface temperature. The systems can be deployed in the field, on the campus, or in the classroom. Learning about these instruments is considered to be an essential component of a technical education. Industry representatives stressed that students need exposure to instruments and engineering tools in their programs or courses. Such preparation would enable hiring of students as interns and help us implement a successful co-op program. The courses in these programs (Hydrologic Engineering, Environmental Science and Engineering, Civil Engineering Design 1 & 2, and Automated Surveying and Mapping) have always relied on local state agencies to organize field trips. While these trips are extremely beneficial, organizing them too often runs into inclement weather and logistical problems. Understanding meteorological measurements via hand-held and mobile devices can be extremely beneficial. These instruments can be also used in a class room setting for demonstrations of concepts with minimal space requirements. Students will now be able to run simulation models in the class room using published data sets. However, they have no idea how the observations (inputs required for these models) are measured in practice. The mobile hydrometeorological system with multiple units will help students to understand, measure and analyze meteorological parameters. The units will complement already existing instruments in CEGE for field measurements of the environment.  The mobile lab will provide an open, creative, and collaborative environment for students and faculty to make measurements and observations more meaningful to what is being taught in class. The lab will introduce emerging technologies in measurement and possibly motivate students to build their own measurement devices with low-cost electronics and materials.

Many universities and laboratories in the US and abroad have started using low cost mobile measurement laboratories to teach students the essence of observational methodologies. FAU can be at the forefront of this hands-on technological movement by providing students with the right instruments/tools and learning environment. All engineering students will have access to the mobile units of this lab and will be able to start building and exploring as soon as they enroll in the program. We expect that this Lab will become very helpful to students to work on collaborative projects to conduct research, interdisciplinary collaboration, explore new designs, build prototypes, and undertake research at all levels of undergraduate education.