Curriculum

CURRICULUM

The 2021-2022 academic year at Virginia Tech found faculty and students returning to campus for in-person instruction for the first time in almost 18 months. Enthusiasm was high as we were able to engage with one another and get back to the hands-on activities and industry practitioner involvement that is a staple in LDDI courses. In total, we offered nine sections of four unique LDDI courses with more than 425 total students enrolled. Advanced Land Development (CEE 4284) was not offered this academic year and will be offered next in Spring 2023. Below is a summary of the five LDDI courses followed by highlights from the past academic year.

Intro. To Land Development (CEE 3274)

The first LDDI course available to VT students and for many sparks their interest in land development.

Course steps students through planning, pre-design, design, and other related topics. Course also incorporates guest speakers, hands-on activities, and software demos for Civil 3D & ArcGIS.

Land Development Design (CEE 4274/5274)

Hallmark course of the LDDI program and designated senior design course

Student teams of 3 or 4 are paired with a mentoring team from an LDDI sponsoring firm. The mentors provide the project for the team to step through the design process: due diligence & concept planning, grading, stormwater management, utilities, and erosion and sediment control.

Municipal Engineering (CEE 4254/5254)

Taught by a municipal engineer with assistance from local government mentors.

Course acquaints students with a municipal engineer’s responsibilities and the relationship between municipal enigneers and the land development industry. Sustainable Land Dev. (CEE 4264/5264)

One of the most popular senior-level courses in the CEE Department

Course teaches students principles of sustainable design, the impact of land use intensification on the environment, and sustainable site selection critieria. Student are also introduced to sustainable rating systems. Adv. Land Development (CEE 4284)

Taught by three teams of industry practitioners every other spring and a co-requisite with Land Development Design (CEE 4274).

Students take a more in-depth look at due diligence and site planning, stormwater design, development types, and project delivery methods.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, we offered 5 sections of CEE 3274 – Introduction to Land Development Design, serving almost 250 civil engineering undergraduate students. During both the fall and spring semesters, we welcomed four guest speakers to campus:

 Jessie Ponce de Leon (GordonDC) discussed due diligence and shared a case study on Columbian Quarter in Washington, D.C.  Sue Wolford and Laura Hall (Pennoni) discussed sustainability including LEED and Envision rating systems.  Skip Notte (Dewberry) discussed the land development engineer’s role during the construction phase of a project.

This was Laura Hall’s (LDDI graduate and now Associate Engineer with Pennoni) first opportunity to present in one of the LDDI courses, though she has on several occasions mentored in the senior design class and participated in after-hours presentations. She shared, “it was sucha rewarding experience tospeak to the Introductionto Land Development class about sustainable development,LEED, and the Envision certification process. Sharing with the students the additionalcertifications with a sustainabilityfocus that are available and achievable during their time as a student and graduate was gratifying . We were able to showcase how sustainabilityis being applied to projects on the Virginia Tech campus to seamlessly be incorporated intoa student’s dailylife.”

We also continued to use some of the resources and new practitioner engagement opportunities developed during the 2020-2021 online academic year for this past year, including the professional development student mentoring program. Our students also benefited from recorded Civil 3D and GIS demo sessions to review following our in-class discussions and while working on completing their assignments. We also took full advantage of being back together in person with the return of our in-class professional networking session (including holding one of these sessions outside!), and having students visit a local development project to take photos of civil engineering elements as their last homework assignment. CEE 4254/5254 – Municipal Engineering, was offered in Spring 2022 with 41 undergraduate students and 8 graduate students. The course was taught by Matt Stolte, Engineering Services Director at Virginia Tech and formerly Assistant Director of Management with the Town of Blacksburg. This was Matt’s third time instructing the course, and his instruction was supported by 18 guest speakers and practitioners from across the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as 12 professional mentors for the course’s final project. The course also featured the largest graduate enrollment to date, as one of the required courses of the Sustainable Land Development M.S. Program. Each graduate student had the opportunity to select a topic of their choosing related to Municipal Engineering and write a literature review in addition to the rest of the course requirements. These literature reviews spanned diverse topics that included comparing and contrasting the implementation of green infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe, to investigating infrastructure vulnerability arising from climate change. Sue Wolford and Laura Hall with Pennoni presenting to CEE 3274 on Sustainability

Kevin and Claire alongside LDDI courses’ Teaching Assistants, May 2022

One of the most popular course among students in the LDDI curriculum, CEE 4264/5264 – Sustainable Land Development, was offered in Fall 2021 with 49 undergraduate students and 5 graduate students. The students participated in two local field trips, a staple of this course dating back to its first offering in Spring 2009. The field trips included an on-campus stormwater BMP tour led by Katelyn Muldoon and Mark Witt (Virginia Tech’s Site and Infrastructure Development department) and the Village at Tom’s Creek residential neighborhood led by Meredith Jones (Eden and Associates). Thanks to the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), students also had first priority to receive free Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) training as a result of ISI’s BOGO promotion during summer 2021. In total, LDDI distributed 34 free trainings to LDDI students this past academic year. In class, students also enjoyed participating in a new way – a game called “Sustain-agories”, which is a takeoff of Scattergories and offers students extra credit for coming up with unique responses to question prompts. For a culminating project, students worked with partners to research a sustainable land development project of their choosing, applying sustainable criteria learned throughout the semester, and preparing a short paper and presentation. The graduate students also completed a literature review on a topic of their choosing similar to the requirements in CEE 5254.

christopher consultants senior design team with mentor, Tiffany Caceres, at final presentations in May 2022. Sustainable Land Development students visit the Village at Tom’s Creek in Blacksburg; tour led by Meredith Jones

Lastly, LDDI offered two sections of CEE 4274/5274 – Land Development Design, with 74 students (including 4 graduate students) and 19 design teams, each paired with its own professional mentoring team. We were excited to welcome the professional mentors back to the classroom for project introductions and final presentations for their first time since Spring 2020. The professional mentoring teams included seasoned veterans as well as first timers such as Charles P. Johnson & Associates and Koontz Bryant Johnson Williams. Returning mentor Tiffany Caceres, Associate with christopher consultants, shared, “being a mentor in the LDDI program is something that I deeply enjoy. Mentoring the students and seeing how they work through problems for a given site is really exciting. The students always ask very thoughtful questions and, as a mentor, it’s almost like I get to watch things ‘click’ into place as they learn and connect the different concepts. Virginia Tech does a great job with this program, and the students who take it definitely have an advantage as they come into the workforce.” Per usual, the design projects offered great variety, from a large data center to singlefamily residential to an urban Washington, D.C. project. Claire White, LDDI Assistant Coordinator, also made her instructional debut in this course in Spring 2022, and also welcomed Jeff Gilliland (J2 Engineers) to discuss grading and Michael Cardman (Bowman) to discuss financial analysis of land development projects.

We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their guest lectures and mentorship in LDDI courses during the last academic year. We offer our sincerest gratitude for helping to enrich our students’ educational experience!

Intro. To Land Development & Sustainable Land Development Mentors  ATCS  christopher consultants  CPJ  Dewberry  J2 Engineers  Timmons Group  VHB Land Development Design Mentors  ADS  ATCS  Bohler  Bowman  christopher consultants  CPJ  Draper Aden Associates  Dewberry  Edens Land  Gordon  J2 Engineers  KBJW  Kimley-Horn  LDC  McAdams  Pennoni  Timmons Group  VHB  WithersRavenel Municipal Engineering Mentors  Albemarle County Service Authority  Arlington County Operations  City of Alexandria  City of Hampton  City of Roanoke  Fairfax County  Fairfax Water  Town of Blacksburg  VDOT  VHB  Virginia Tech CPIF – Energy Engineering  Virginia Tech CPIF – Site Infrastructure Design

Guest Speakers & Practitioners  Matthew Adams, Fairfax County  Brian Booth, Blacksburg Transit Authority  Sandy Camargo, ADS  Michael Cardman, Bowman  Carol Davis, Town of Blacksburg  Jeff Gilliland, J2 Engineers  Lindsey Geiger, Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure  Elizabeth Grant, GAF  Laura Hall, Pennoni  Lee Hixon, H2R Stormwater Engineering  Kafi Howard, Town of Blacksburg  Meredith Jones, Eden & Associates  Andrew Kassoff, Blacksburg Planning Commission  Trevor Kimzey, Foresight Design Services  Amy Linderman, Fairfax County Park Authority  Anas Malkawi, HRSD  Elizabeth Merin, Fairfax County  Gabby Mikuria, Fairfax County  Joshua Middleton, Town of Blacksburg  Craig Moore, VDOT  Alexander Morrison, Albemarle County  Katelyn Muldoon, VT Site & Infrastructure Development  Skip Notte, Dewberry  Jessie Ponce de Leon, GordonDC  Justin St. Clair, Town of Christiansburg  Robert Stalzer, City of Fairfax  Ross Stilling, Fairfax Water  Brad Stipes, Christiansburg Town Council  Caleb Taylor, NRV Regional Water Authority  Eric Wiseman, VT College of Natural Resources  Mark Witt, VT Site & Infrastructure Development  Sue Wolford, Pennoni