Joel Lanning

This summer at COSMOS at UCI a civil and environmental engineering “cluster” was launched by myself and Assoc. Professor Garrett Struckhoff, of California State University, Fullerton. In COSMOS, clusters are groups of 20-25 top California high schoolers interested in STEM that live on campus for a month and take on research and design projects well beyond high school.

Twenty two students in six teams completed research and design projects centered around green technologies aimed at California’s civil infrastructure challenges like the urban heat island effect and energy use, drinking and storm water management issues, and the constant threat of damaging earthquakes. Local field trips also shed light on CEE issues and solutions here in Orange County. They toured the OC Water District’s Ground Water Replenishment system and collected and analyzed data for the Crystal Cove Conservancy, at the park, on coastal erosion and runoff water quality. These experiences primed and inspired the students to tackle their research projects on campus.

One team investigated the impact various roofing methods had on the urban heat island effect and internal heating and cooling energy consumption. They designed and built a green roof, or garden roof, and compared it to a traditional shingled roof and a white roof, which was a very low-cost solution of simply painting shingles with white elastomeric paint. They found that while the green roof provided the most insulating effect, while also would mitigating storm water runoff, the white roof provided the most cost effective reduction in internal and radiated heat from the harsh summer sun. Other teams added to the clubhouse a solar water heater, a solar desalination system, and an “algae shade” where algae was grown in an elevated and sloped aquarium with the dual purpose of providing shade for the Green Clubhouse and for growing and harvesting algae for biofuel extraction.

The seismic systems team built scale models of 20-story buildings, of which the clubhouse unit was conceptually a part, and compared two common seismic bracing designs. Their models were tested on a small shake table where they investigated the dynamic properties of the buildings and, of course, shook it to failure under a large simulated earthquake. Finally, a team studied dams and reservoirs from which the green unit would conceptually receive its water. After investigating nearby topography the team selected a dam design and build a scale model of the dam and the surrounding topography so as to model a reservoir.

Overall, the new CEE cluster was a success and students were very vocal about their positive experience. Not only did they enjoy the content and projects, but they clearly grew in terms of working together in teams and in confidence in their abilities. We are excited to continue to develop the program next year.

(Here’s the link to the Henry Samueli School of Engineering story on this project)