At the beginning
of my junior year, I was struggling to see on what path concentration of Civil
Engineering I wanted to follow. However, not long into my CEIE 340: Water
Resources Engineering class, I realized that studying water was the right path
for me. I went to the professor of that class, who is now my mentor, asking how
to get involved into the work he was doing. This led to him suggesting that I
apply for URSP funding.
I hope going
through this experience of independent research will allow me to learn the
steps and procedures for completing individual scholarly work. I am already
determined to continue my education through graduate school, during which I
will complete a thesis. While my thesis will be much more complicated than this
project, the experience I will have gained by participating in the URSP will
give me a huge advantage.
Most of my work
so far involves working with hydrologic modeling software from the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers: HEC-HMS and HEC-GeoHMS. My current goal is to set up a
current hydrologic model of the George Mason Fairfax Campus. Then, using aerial
images, I will set up hydrologic models for the campus over the past thirty
years. I will then analyze the changes that have occurred to the campus
hydrology as a result of the rapid development that has been happening. With
the consistent construction of many new buildings, such as Taylor Hall,
Academic VII, and the Fenwick Expansion, our results should show an increase in
runoff volume and peak flows, which ultimately leads to more flooding on
campus.
