IRIS graduate students flex their problem solving skills during Natural Infrastructure Field Course
This past week, twelve Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) graduate students ditched the classroom for the beach – where they attended a natural infrastructure field course on Skidaway Island and Isle of Hope to flex their problem solving skills in the real world.
“The idea of the course is to expose students to coastal environments and infrastructure,” said Dan Coleman, Assistant Research Scientist in the College of Engineering. During the course, students designed coastal natural infrastructure to address the issues and needs that they saw throughout their visits.
They also learned about different facets of natural infrastructure implementation by meeting with a city official from Tybee, getting to know the director of Wormsloe, meeting with members of the Hog Hammock Community on Sapelo island to hear about the flooding concerns and ongoing projects, and speaking with employees from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
“The class took an in-depth and up-close look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of coastal infrastructure,” Coleman said. “This included some of the first nature-based solutions in the state, locations in need of infrastructure solutions, and struggling and/or failing traditional infrastructure. Learning in a classroom setting is great for the fundamentals, but experiential learning is crucial for driving the point home. The course occurred during some of the highest tides of the year, which further highlighted the hazards faced by coastal communities.”
Coleman taught the course alongside IRIS Director Brian Bledose, Brock Woodson, Professor in the College of Engineering, and Safra Altman, lead for the ERDC Environmental Laboratory’s Coastal Ecology team.
The hands-on experience the field course provided also gave students the opportunity to practice developing designs to address the problems they witnessed.
“We also had the students develop study plans and design alternatives to address the concerns of the sites we visited,” Coleman said. “This offered hands-on experience with tasks that professional engineers and consultants regularly must perform. It was really rewarding to see the students take such a strong interest in the projects and the class as a whole. Hopefully this will be a course that sticks with students as they move into the workforce.”
One fun memory that the students will be sure not to forget:
“There may or may not have been the Macarena one night after dinner. Who’s to know.”
