Evaluation of Continuous Monitoring as a Tool for Municipal Stormwater Management Programs

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the uncertainty attributable to inadequate temporal sampling of stormwater discharge and water quality, and understand its implications for meeting monitoring objectives relevant to municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s). A methodology is presented to evaluate uncertainty attributable to inadequate temporal sampling of continuous stormflow and water quality, and a case study demonstrates the application of the methodology to six small urban watersheds (0.8-6.8 km2) and six large rural watersheds (30-16,192 km2) in Virginia. Results indicate the necessity of high-frequency continuous monitoring for accurately capturing multiple monitoring objectives, including illicit discharges, acute toxicity events, and stormflow pollutant concentrations and loads, as compared to traditional methods of sampling. For example, 1-h sampling in small urban watersheds and daily sampling in large rural watersheds would introduce uncertainty in capturing pollutant loads of 3–46% and 10–28%, respectively. Overall, the outcomes from this study highlight how MS4s can leverage continuous monitoring to meet multiple objectives under current and future regulatory environments

Design and Implementation of a Mechatronics Learning Module in a Large First-semester Engineering Course

Since 2005, the first-year engineering program at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, has been significantly restructured to include more hands-on learning. A major grant (2004-2009) under the department level reform (DLR) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) facilitated this restructuring. A number of hands-on learning modules were developed and implemented within a required first-semester undergraduate course. One of the modules introduced mechatronics. The goal of this module is to introduce first-year engineering students to a portion of the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering disciplines within a collaborative setting. Interestingly, while the largest portion of engineering students in the United States are enrolled in electrical and mechanical engineering programs, there is a disparity between the percentage of male engineering students and female engineering students within those disciplines relative to the overall distribution of all students among the various engineering disciplines. By introducing all engineering students to mechatronics before students declare their specific discipline, the college hopes to attract more females to programs that suffer from a greater gender disparity than is already found within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This paper discusses the details of the implementation of the mechatronics initiative and gives student feedback that includes overall perception of the initiative and perception by gender