LDA Senior Project Manager Stefanie Farrell, along with UT professor Jennifer Retherford, accompanied a team of University of Tennessee undergraduate engineering students on a recent trip to the WEFTEC Conference in New Orleans. The conference is considered the largest annual water quality technical conference and exhibition in the world.
The team had been assigned a year-long senior design project consisting of a stream restoration for the Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, TN. Alex Haley Farm is owned by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a non-profit organization that supports disadvantaged youth and their advocates.
The students on the team were tasked with finding a solution for severe erosion, primarily caused by an existing concrete culvert, along the banks of a stream that runs through the center of the property. The team actively collaborated with the CDF management team to provide an economically feasible solution that met their needs. Many civil engineering concentrations were utilized to prepare adequate designs. After a year of research and design supported by faculty and industry mentors, including Farrell and Retherford, the team competed in the Water Environment Federation (WEF) 2018 Student Design Competition at the conference, taking 2nd place out of 11 teams!