Civil engineering students learn how to create a better world

So welcome to the village at Tom's Creek. This development first started in 1999. There are 200 units, but there's a lot of open space, right? Percent open space. So today we're at the village of Tom's Creek and we're taking students out to get to look at elements of sustainability, things that we've been talking about in class and actually see it here and practice. This class is sustainable land development. So this is a course in civil engineering. I see this class as an opportunity for students to really think about being engineers for the people. Yes, we're here to protect the environment. We're here to do it economically. But this class is an opportunity to spend a lot of time talking about what are those community elements that bring people together. And I think the students get to see that through walking through a neighborhood like the village and concrete. There's definitely aspects outside of the classroom that I think make the whole land development process more real. When you come out to a community like this, it allows you to see the impact that you have as a civil engineer on people in your society. And that is, that is that I think there's always an aha moment of hearing about like things in class regulations that you have for specific reasons. Talking about making streets more walkable, are talking about making streets more pedestrian friendly. But I don't think until like until I actually come out here, I feel like I don't fully realized or appreciate those regulations like e.g. talking about the alleyways, which are supposed to make streets more friendly and allow houses to be closer because you don't need parking in front of a house. So until today I feel like going and seeing the alleyway, seeing the difference that it makes on the street. It was really cool. With LTI since the beginning, we've been focused on both the inside of the classroom experience but also the outside of the classroom experience. And it's really taking advantage of how tangible civil engineering is, how tangible land development is. And how by walking around neighborhoods like this or other sites, we can be inspired in our own design. When you're in the class and you're examining case studies and talking in these really abstract terms. It's, it's really helpful to come out, see how certain design decisions affects people's lives. And see how we create a better world.