Blinn engineering students offer suggestions for improvements to Brenham Park | Jobs Vox

Students in the Blinn College District engineering class offer ideas to improve the town of Brenham Park.

Three teams from an ENGR 1201: Introduction to Engineering class on the Brenham campus recently presented their ideas to city officials regarding potential upgrades to Hattie May Flowers Park.

The park, named after the first black principal in the Brenham School District, was dedicated in 1977. It has relatively few facilities other than a restroom, several grills and tables, a small play area, and a basketball court.

Students suggested improvements that included new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms, fencing to separate the park from the street, a drainage ditch, and a fenced dog park.

Engineering instructor Ron Kelling, PE, said the teams were asked to identify cost-effective improvements to the park that would encourage greater use by residents in surrounding neighborhoods.

“The park provided students with an opportunity to engage in a real-world project in the community where they live and learn and to combine classroom instruction with community service,” he said. “The park project provided an opportunity for students to apply the concepts of teamwork, project management, communication, professionalism, problem identification/solving, design process, and social impact that were discussed in class and that are essential for an engineer.” are important.”

Daniel Mercadale, a freshman in the spring, said the project was a good experience.

“I don’t think I could get that much exposure anywhere else,” he said. “I won’t be able to talk to the city council, I’ll be able to talk to city officials. So I think Blinn is the place for me.

“I’m very proud of my group and what we’ve accomplished. I’ve been to the park three or four times. It’s a nice park, but we definitely feel we can improve. I hope I hope someday I can come back, look at some of our ideas and say, ‘Hey, this is a really cool place.’

Dan Rau, Brenham’s director of public works, said the city plans to make improvements to the park over the next seven years.

“It’s a way to get some ideas from kids who aren’t from Brenham but have experienced parks in the cities in which they grew up,” he said. “I think the students did a great job by coming here and presenting their ideas. It got them out of their comfort zone a little bit, and they should be proud of themselves because they showed up and presented it.

Blinn offers one of the premier two-year engineering programs in the state. Based on the Brenham and Rellis campuses, Blinn’s engineering program offers a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering as well as two co-admission programs with the Texas A&M College of Engineering: Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn-Brenham and Texas A&M Engineering at Blinn.

Additionally, as a community college partner in the RELLIS Academic Alliance, Blinn engineering students can co-enroll at Tarleton State and earn a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering or mechanical engineering or co-enroll with Texas A&M University-Texarkana You can enroll and pursue your graduation. Science in Electrical Engineering.

Through the Transfer Academy for Tomorrow’s Engineers (Tate) program, Blinn students can co-enroll in the University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering and earn a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

The Hattie Mae Flowers Park project represents just one of the learning opportunities available to Blinn engineering students.

“This project is also an example of collaboration of various Blinn College resources to help students develop,” said Kelling. “Each student group practiced their presentation with an individual Blinn Speech Department faculty member to receive comments/guidance on how to improve their presentation. Some student groups met with a tutor in the Blinn Writing Center to They can get comments/guidance on how to improve their written reports.

For more information, visit www.blinn.edu/engineering.

(Story courtesy Richard Bray, Blinn Information)