George Mason University

What value does a real-world project bring to students?

A real-world project brings a level of purpose, complexity, and accountability that is difficult to fully recreate in a traditional classroom assignment. With the Chincoteague WWTP project, students were not simply solving textbook problems; they were working through the types of decisions that engineers face when designing critical public infrastructure.

The project required students to consider public health, environmental protection, regulatory compliance, constructability, cost, operations, and long-term community needs. It helped them understand that wastewater treatment design is not just about calculations and process selection. It is about protecting people, preserving water quality, and developing solutions that can be implemented and operated in the real world.

Just as important, the project gave students confidence. They learned how to communicate technical ideas, defend design decisions, respond to feedback, and work as a team. That experience is extremely valuable as they transition from students into practicing engineers.

How do you decide which projects to work on?

We look for projects that are technically challenging, realistic in scope, and meaningful from a public welfare standpoint. The best projects are those that allow students to apply engineering fundamentals while also dealing with the practical constraints of professional practice.

For the Chincoteague WWTP project, the subject matter was a strong fit because it combined wastewater treatment, environmental stewardship, public health, resiliency, cost, constructability, and community impact. It gave students the opportunity to work on a project that felt real because the issues were real.

We also consider whether the project can support meaningful collaboration with professional engineers. The involvement of practicing engineers is essential because they help students understand how design decisions are made in practice, how alternatives are evaluated, and how engineers balance technical, regulatory, financial, and operational considerations.

How did this project prepare students for professional practice?

This project prepared students for professional practice by requiring them to think and act more like engineers. They had to develop design criteria, evaluate treatment alternatives, consider site and operational constraints, prepare technical deliverables, and present their recommendations in a clear and defensible way.

The students also learned that engineering design is an iterative process. Their first answer was not always the final answer. They had to receive feedback, revisit assumptions, refine calculations, improve drawings, and strengthen their technical justification. That mirrors what happens in professional engineering practice every day.

The participation of licensed professional engineers was especially valuable. The students were exposed to professional judgment, ethical responsibility, public protection, and the importance of clear communication. By the end of the project, they had a much better understanding of how engineering decisions affect communities and why the role of the professional engineer is so important.

What advice do you have for other programs wanting to add similar collaborative projects to their curriculum?

My advice is to start with a project that matters and then build the right support system around it. A successful collaborative project does not need to be the largest or most complicated project, but it does need to be real enough to challenge students and meaningful enough to motivate them.

Programs should involve professional engineers early, define the scope clearly, and establish regular checkpoints where students can receive feedback. The project should be integrated into the curriculum rather than treated as an extra assignment. Students need time to understand the problem, develop alternatives, make decisions, and improve their work.

It is also important to let students take ownership. The role of the faculty and professional mentors should be to guide, challenge, and support the students, not to give them all the answers. When done well, these projects create tremendous value. Students gain confidence and practical experience, faculty strengthen the connection between education and practice, and the profession benefits from graduates who are better prepared to serve the public.

What did you like best about participating in this project?

What I liked most about participating in this project was working on a treatment plant that is actually in service with a real client reviewing our work. That made the project feel very different from a typical classroom assignment. I developed the BioWin models for all four treatment alternatives using five years of actual influent flow and water quality data provided by HRSD. Knowing that the results I generated fed directly into the MADM scoring used to select the SBR system and that HRSD could ultimately build the alternative we recommended, made the modeling work feel meaningful. It was rewarding to see how the technical analyses we completed could directly influence a real engineering decision.

What did you learn?

One of the biggest things I learned was that a BioWin model is only as good as the assumptions behind it, and those assumptions are tested by engineers and operators who have run a treatment plant. I also went from thinking about SBR sizing as simply a tank volume calculation to understanding it as an operations and control problem, where the fill, react, settle, decant, and wasting cycles must all work together under changing seasonal flows and loading conditions. In addition, I learned how process modeling connects to every other aspect of a project, including plant footprint, constructability, and maintaining permit compliance during construction. Overall, the project showed me that successful wastewater treatment design requires balancing technical analysis with practical operations considerations.

How did the participation of professional engineers improve the experience?

The participation of professional engineer greatly improved my experience by providing practical insight that went beyond what I could have developed on my own. Pete Loomis encouraged me to present the SBR basins, equalization, filtration, and disinfection as one integrated treatment train rather than as separate modeling exercises. Kayla Stephens helped me to think how the operator would actually run the sequence on a day–to–day basis, making the design more practical and realistic. Ag Fallon also helped refine the MADM weighting to better reflect real operational priorities instead of focusing solely on theoretical treatment performance. Their feedback helped make sure that the final design was not only technically sound but also practical and representative of real-world engineering decision-making.

What do you think the engineers learned from working with students on this project?

I think the engineers saw that students can contribute meaningful technical work when given the opportunity. Our team analyzed five years of influent data, developed four fully modeled treatment alternatives, and completed detailed hand calculations for sizing. At the same time, they had the opportunity to mentor us and explain the reasoning behind many of their design decisions. Answering our questions about why certain assumptions mattered required them to articulate concepts and thought processes that they normally apply instinctively. Overall, I think the collaboration demonstrated that students could provide valuable technical support while also benefiting from the experience and judgement of practicing engineers.

Why did you get involved with the project?

I got involved in this project because I care deeply about the next generation of engineers. I wanted to share my knowledge and experience to help students develop the technical and professional skills they will need in their careers.

How did you assist the students in the project?

I supported the students by sharing technical knowledge gained throughout my career. I provided guidance on engineering concepts, answered questions, offered feedback on their designs, and helped them understand how engineering principles are applied in real-world projects.

What did you learn from working with the students?

Working with the students showed me how quickly they can learn complex design and modeling concepts when they are given the right opportunities and support. Their enthusiasm and ability to adapt gave me confidence that the future of engineering is in good hands.

What did you want students to learn from working with you?

I wanted students to gain a better understanding of how engineering works in the real world. Beyond technical skills, I hoped they would learn the importance of collaboration across different disciplines, effective communication, and that asking questions is not a weakness—it is an essential part of solving problems and growing as an engineer.