Blake
Smith
Blake's Project Interests:
Stormwater Control, Site Planning and Design
The outdoor environment has played a big role in shaping me as a person and my future; from playing in my backyard, to playing sports, to hunting and fishing with my dad and brother. As I have grown older I have developed a greater curiosity of how everything works in the environment. My strong passion for the outdoors at a young age led me to become a Biosystems Engineer. I conducted a lot of research before I made the commitment of choosing this major. I pursued this career as a result of my love for the environment and outdoors, it has a broad range of applications in the real-world, and I believe it will have a high demand in the future. I have experience working for a landscaping company as a project manager and thoroughly enjoyed working outside everyday. I started an apparel company, Cast Out Fishing LLC, because I wanted to create comfortable outdoor gear for people who enjoy the outdoors as much as I do. Traveling is another passion of mine. I love traveling to go experience different places, cultures, and ecological environments. Studying abroad in Barcelona for 5 weeks allowed me to understand and relate to people that came from different traditions. It gave me a greater appreciation for all nationalities and cultures. I have also traveled 16 days in 16 states across the western United States. This gave me a larger insight to the different types of ecological environments across the United States, and the problems some of their ecosystems are faced with. Throughout my career at Auburn becoming a Biosystems Engineer, it has allowed me to apply the knowledge I have learned to my hunting property as well as give me a greater awareness of the impact humans have on the environment. I am confident in the material I have learned, which will enable me to pursue the career I aspire to have after college.
I saw the Yarbrough Elementary School as the best opportunity for me to apply what I have learned in school because of the broad range of problems they were faced with. This consists of energy and water consumption management, stormwater control, and implement STEM learning for the students. Yarbrough Elementary enabled me to gain insight to consumption problems most company's are faced with as well as stormwater management. I was most interested in their runoff and stormwater issues by implementing LID (Low Impact Development) practices. After taking a class in Site Design my proficiency in AutoCAD Civil 3D empowered me to find the best possible solution for my client. I am most interested in designing site plans in AutoCAD. This project has given me the chance to think like an engineer in terms of design objectives and constraints, and the ability to determine the most cost efficient and effective plan for my client. The biggest constraint we were faced with was the budget of $5,000, but allowed me to realize the importance of doing the job the correct way as cheap as possible. I feel like I have experienced the constraints engineers have to overcome in order to accomplish the task as well as pleasing the client. I am now able to narrow down the direction of my career path after this project. Designing site plans is a path I could see myself choosing as a career after college.
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This project has given me opportunity to encounter some of the problems engineers come across when designing a plan for a client. My awareness of what actually goes into the design process has grown exponentially. The amount of information we were provided with posed multiple problems in our design process. The majority of this project consisted of theoretical calculations and values. I noticed that using theoretical calculations to make assumptions was a large part of the design process for engineers. I found myself struggling with the energy and water consumption section because it was hard to know if the method I chose was the correct method for the theoretical values. I have never been exposed to a project like this, which made it difficult for me to accomplish some of the tasks for my team. My previous experience as a project manager and knowledge regarding site design enabled me to find the most effective LID practice given the properties conditions. This design project has permitted me to become more knowledgeable about the components regarding site designing and planning. The design process still has theoretical values that need to be calculated, but it is not as extensive as the water and energy calculations. I found myself more comfortable calculating the required dimensions and values for the swales we plan to implement for the school. I enjoyed designing the LID practices the most, and reaffirmed my choice of pursuing a career that involve site design practices, and management.
Final Site Design Project I designed in AutoCAD Civil 3D.
Involved:
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Designing a house site plan with a detached garage, tractor shed, wood shed, and a large backyard.
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The driveway had to be wide enough to fit a double wide trailer in the circle.
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The objective was to not bring in or take any dirt out from the grading of the structures. (which was done effectively with 1.92 sq yards of dirt left over from the grading)
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Taking into account the runoff from the impervious surfaces and making sure there is no flooding on the site.
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Implement a bioretention cell that caught most of the runoff from the newly developed site.
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A berm that redirected a majority of the runoff water from the site and to natural flow paths.
Project Contributions
For the Yarbrough Elementary School project, my job was to find a solution to the runoff issue the large playground area had. After a storm there would be puddling in the field, also there would be water that would runoff to the stairs leading up to the field. These problems make it quite difficult for the students to play after a storm occurs. The principal stated that they would not be able to go up to the field for up to a week a times due to the puddling being so severe. After looking at the natural flow paths on AutoCAD I was able to determine where the majority of the problems would develop. I then found three locations to implement swales that would mitigate the puddling of the field by catching and redirecting the stormwater to natural flow paths. I then calculated the size of the swales given there location, elevation change, and how much water they would be able to redirect effectively. I used a 25-year 24-hour Type II storm to calculate the size of the swales. I used this type of storm because it is bigger and less typical than most of the storms coming through this area. Once my calculations were finished I started designing them in AutoCAD. After the design process I was able to double check the effectiveness of the swales and make modifications as necessary. The swales were able to reduce the stormwater impact by an average of 9% as a whole in the upper playground area. I was able to achieve my goals for this project and fix the problems the school was facing in the upper play ground area.
Career Goals
As stated previously, my choice of pursuing Biosystems Engineering is due to my passion for the outdoors and my want to make it a better place than when I found it. Throughout my senior year at Auburn University I have established a large interest in implementing LID's and designing the site plans in AutoCAD. This senior design project has further developed my interest in designing site plans in AutoCAD. It gave me a better idea of how the full design process works in the real world. Being able to see it through an economic stand point allowed me to realize what goes into the whole process. My career goals involve heavily with taking my business, Cast Out Fishing LLC., as far as I can take it; and getting a job as an engineer that would be able use AutoCAD to implement low impact developmental practices. For Cast Out Fishing I would like for it to become known as the next big fishing company that involves all aspects of fishing. As an engineer I would like my job to be associated with producing environmentally sustainable practices in communities that needs some form of landscaping to be carried out. I also want to be apart of developing plans that reduce the impact stormwater has in areas where it lacks. These are my career plans and goals for my future because this is what I am most interested in as I go into the real world.