FERL Summer 2022

Each summer, rising civil and environmental engineering second class cadets engage in the cornerstone of their major’s curriculum: a three-week field course designed to introduce the students to their discipline and lay the foundation for their future coursework. The course is known as Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory (FERL).

The course has over 20 activities including surveying, roadway paving, concrete beam construction and testing, wood frame house construction, heavy equipment operations, steel bridge erection, pipe and open channel flow design, expeditionary wastewater treatment and field trips to material and processing plants in the local area.

These activities allow the students to assume the role of technician under the watchful eyes of mentors. In the following two years of classroom academic work, students can relate their theoretical classroom education to real-life construction experience gained during FERL.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering partnered with the Southwest Indian Foundation and the Navajo Nation to build homes, or Hogans, during FERL. While previous wood frame projects at FERL included building permanent structures for the site, the current wood frame activity constructs mobile modular housing units, complete with structural, electrical, and mechanical subsystems.

These buildings are constructed at the FERL site and then shipped to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, where they are assembled for families in need of permanent housing. This year, FERL is constructing the 52d and 53d Hogans for the Navajo Nation. Each cadet works on the project once a week while at FERL providing an excellent introduction to the cultural and humanitarian aspects of engineering.

 

   

     

Go to GALLERIES > Summer Programs > FERL. Set your sort order from OLDEST to NEWEST. Photos begin on page 1.

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FERL Summer 2022 Photos