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The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department using a simplified and easy-to-use process design platform to improve learning experience for students.
Challenge
Design students had to manually create spreadsheets to simulate treatment processes
The University of Michigan Civil and Environmental Engineering Department (CEE) founded in 1837, with over 180 years of history, is delivering some of the best engineering programs in the United States and in the world.
Although software technologies have been used in teaching civil engineering and biological wastewater treatment for a long time, it was not the norm for teachers and students in municipal and industrial water treatment and desalination. Design students had to manually create spreadsheets to simulate treatment processes – making it inefficient, slow and cumbersome to evaluate multiple designs.
Under the direction of Dr. Glen Daigger, Professor of Engineering Practice and a global leader in water engineering solutions and technologies, the Department was seeking a better and more engaging way to teach engineering design.
Solution
In 2022, The Department adopted EVS Water Plant Designer as a teaching aid in its Capstone Design Class.
The software was designed to mirror the concept design process of professional engineers, allowing Environmental Engineering students with minimal experience to water treatment, to simulate and evaluate a variety of water treatment design options quickly and effectively.
Result
Process a large number of design ideas in a short period of time
By using Plant Designer, students were able to meaningfully process a large number of ideas in a short period of time, leading to a much better design outcome for the project that they were assigned to.
Dr. Glen Daigger, Professor of Engineering Practice at The University of Michigan Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, said: "EVS Water Plant Designer offers a unique approach and is so easy to use to design drinking water and industrial water treatment processes. It has significantly improved the teaching of water treatment design here at the University of Michigan."
