NDSU freshmen environmental engineering students connect to industry through professional rotation

NDSU Professor Achintya Bezbaruah is taking a new approach to immersive learning through the piloting of a professional immersion rotation in his environmental engineering course, analysis and design methods for environmental engineers.

Through visits to area engineering firms, Bezbaruah aims to help students compare textbook problems to real-world complexity, observe and interact with industry professionals and actively engage in “day in the life” experiences within different roles. This also provides an opportunity for students to be exposed to engineering career paths much earlier in their training.

Bezbaruah worked with each engineering firm to develop the itinerary for the visits.

During these visits, students in the class have learned about the technical aspects of engineering, while also learning about ecology, wetland restoration, river restoration, regulations, permits and environmental law.

“In environmental engineering, it’s important to balance technical knowledge with ecological awareness,” Bezbaruah said.

They also heard from recent graduates, gaining perspective on early-career steps, learned about software utilized by engineers and heard about long-running projects and case studies on projects such as wastewater effluent repurposed for agriculture-based industries, restoring fish passages, bioengineering in river restoration and historical hydraulic modeling.

Feedback from students and firms has been positive.

“We’ve been able to see overviews of multiple engineering projects, the plans for the projects and even the designing of projects on computer software,” said Payton Gast, freshman environmental engineering major from Moorhead, Minnesota. “Seeing how all the projects come together and how they use the knowledge that we are gaining in our courses just puts into perspective how important what we are learning is.”

Additionally, students are able to begin professionally networking, forming connections and relationships with industry professionals.

This collaboration is also beneficial for the engineering firms, which are interested in having students intern with them and consider them for future places of employment.

“Visits like this are invaluable for both our firm and the students,” said Eric Dodds, client program leader at AE2S. “Spending time with NDSU’s environmental engineering students allows us to learn about their goals and interests, and how those may align with the real-world work our engineers are doing every day. It’s always encouraging and inspiring to see the excitement and curiosity of engineering students. Experience like this helps bridge the gap between concepts they’re learning in the classroom and the real-life challenges our teams are solving in the field.”