| Eco-tourism is a burgeoning business
in many parts of the world, an open door to exploring an environment
that is nearly in balance with its human cohabitants. Linking this
exploration to higher education creates opportunities for combining
research and instruction in these pristine environments.
The UGA facility in San Luis, Costa Rica, formally known as the
University of Georgia Ecolodge San Luis and Research Station, presents
the university with opportunities to expand its already
 |
| Dale Threadgill (above) visited San Luis
to provide professional expertise about the design of an environmentally
sensitive wastewater treatment system at the Ecolodge. |
formidable study-abroad program. Engineering students in this unique
learning environment benefit from exposure to a variety of academic
and cultural perspectives, but also experience their intersections
with the many factors that impinge on design and problem solving
around the world.
Third-year biological engineering major Erik Jarrett recently returned
from Costa Rica, where he spent the entire fall semester at the
Ecolodge. For him, the program’s focus on ecological research
was matched by the self-discovery that came from living in and around
the rainforest.
“I viewed the program as a way to learn how to learn, to learn
how to see from new perspectives,” he says.
Dale Threadgill, director of UGA’s Faculty of Engineering,
visited Ecolodge San Luis in mid-December. He sees this program
as an opportunity for engineering to take part in study abroad.
“With the programs in Oxford and Cortona focused more on the
liberal arts than the sciences, you really don’t think of
engineering in regard to study abroad,” he says. “This
past semester in San Luis, there were students from art to engineering
involved, so study abroad might not be such a novelty for engineers,
at least not at UGA.”
At the request of Mark Lusk, associate provost for international
affairs, Threadgill and another engineering faculty member visited
San Luis to provide professional expertise about the design of an
environmentally sensitive wastewater treatment system at the Ecolodge.
Such an opportunity fits with the emphasis on integrated ecological
engineering at the university, joining the resources of ecology,
engineering, and environmental design.
“The Ecolodge Research Station represents a teaching opportunity
for all disciplines associated with international development—particularly
engineering,” says Lusk. “Having worked on dozens of
engineering projects for the World Bank and A.I.D., I’ve learned
how critical engineering fields are to the development of successful
resource-management systems.”
Research at the Ecolodge creates a learning laboratory, where students
can gain practical experience in a course uniquely suited to a location.
The designs under consideration for a sustainable wastewater treatment
system will also allow for the possibility of conducting research
into the efficacy of various treatment options in the cloud-forest
climate around the lodge, according to lead designer Matt Smith,
associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at
the UGA campus in Tifton. The plan is to install three primary types
of treatment systems: free water surface, subsurface flow constructed
wetlands and facultative lagoons.
“It’s not often that we get the chance to install multiple
treatment units in parallel so that we can truly compare their performance—full
scale—side by side,” Smith says. This opportunity for
research also makes the facility a demonstration site, both for
the residents of the local villages and for the students.
Back in Athens, Erik Jarrett is still absorbing the lessons of his
semester in Costa Rica. He says the experience solidified his decision
to enlist in the Peace Corps after graduation, and has added perspective
to his engineering education and where he would like it to take
him.
“Coming back, I feel a little more connected with the world,”
he says.
|
