Civil Engineering Survey Camp: a summer tradition continues
Summer in College Station means it's time for Survey Camp for some civil engineering students.
Some say summer is the best time to be in College Station, Texas.
With many of the 45,000 Texas A&M students away, College Station’s roads and restaurants are less crowed, and parking is abundant. This year 27 students got to enjoy the perks of summertime in College Station while they participated in one of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering’s greatest traditions: Survey Camp.
During Survey Camp, students team work with practicing surveyors and use their equipment out in the field.
Survey Camp is an Old Army tradition that was discontinued in the 1980s only to be reinstated in 2002 with a whole new structure. The 21st century Survey Camp, CVEN 403: Civil Engineering Surveying Practical Experience, is a two-week course between the spring and summer semesters that consists of six days in the computer lab and five days out at Texas A&M University’s Riverside Campus. Each day is at least eight hours long and full of hands-on experience with surveying and map preparation. Teams of four students get to work with practicing surveyors and use their equipment out in the field.
“I got a lot more out of the field work,” said Sara Diaz ’10. “[We] learn[ed] more from it getting to work with real surveyors.”
Carlos Cotton, the chief operating officer at Jones & Carter Inc. and an instructor for Survey Camp, says he believes that the camp provides a necessary foundation for any engineer.
Studetns use computer programs to use data collected to develop topographical maps and draw boundary and plat maps.
“I tell the students that all successful engineering projects begin with good surveying (topographical surveys) and end with good surveying (construction staking),” Cotton said. “While this course can’t make expert surveyors, it does teach them how surveying is applied to engineering projects and what they need to know in order to review survey data.”
In the computer lab students learn software such as AutoCAD and Carlson Survey. The students use these programs to take data collected from the field and develop topographical maps and to draw boundary and plat maps.
“Hopefully this course will also inspire some graduating engineers to pursue a surveying career and work towards a dual registration in engineering and surveying,” Cotton said.
Survey Camp, 1892
Written by Cassidy Thomas
Popularity: 32% [?]
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
