Virginia Tech

Land Development Design Initiative

The project abstract is below. For the indepth project description, click here to download a PDF.

Abstract

A large team of professional engineers has rallied around a call for participation in the development of a new emphasis in land development design within a Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at a major land-grant institution. While as many as one third of graduating civil engineers go to work in the land development industry, few civil engineering programs in the country have any course or emphasis in land development within their curriculum. The Land Development Design Initiative (LDDI) involves more than 70 engineering and land development firms and directly involves industry professionals in teaching, mentoring, curriculum development, and promoting land development to undergraduate students. This paper describes LDDI and the effort to bring together undergraduate CEE students and faculty with industry professionals in order to improve land development design education.

Strategic planning for LDDI began in early 2006 with the development of an advisory board and continued with statewide outreach meetings in four major regions of the state. The purpose of these meetings was to share the LDDI vision and recruit industry professionals to participate in development of the land development design program at the University. These early efforts have resulted in over 150 practitioners who now participate in this initiative, donating time, energy, and their firms’ resources to achieve LDDI priorities. Participation is kept active by the advisory board’s biweekly teleconferences and quarterly meetings, semiannual general membership meetings, email, a quarterly newsletter, and a collaboration website that enables sharing files, discussions, and a chat room. Organization of the LDDI group has resulted in the creation of two major committees: Curriculum and Course Enhancement and Practitioner Involvement.

The major objective of the Curriculum & Course Enhancement Committee (CCEC) is to develop a strong land development design curriculum with coursework that prepares students for the land development design profession. The major objective of the Practitioner Involvement Committee (PIC) is to develop a strong and sustainable relationship between the private and public sectors of the land development profession and CEE students at the University. This relationship is intended to increase awareness of land development as a career path and to help students prepare for a career in the land development design profession.

The CCEC is chaired by a professional engineer not otherwise affiliated with the University, and is comprised of other practicing engineers and University faculty. Among the ways the CCEC is improving land development design education at the University is through the development of a land development design “track” within the CEE curriculum, inclusion of practitioners in existing courses, and creation of new courses.

The PIC facilitates numerous events each semester that bring students together with industry professionals. These events include presentations during “Land Development Information Nights”, during classes, and at student club meetings, such as the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The committee has also developed a website, brochures about land development career opportunities, and has promoted the development of a student club to facilitate interactions between students and practitioners. Furthermore, the PIC has encouraged participating companies to ensure meaningful internship experiences for students by adopting a list of best practices.