Civil Engineering Students Survey the Shaw Quad

Civil engineers need site layout surveys to help determine the placement of buildings, roadways, bridges and other infrastructure projects. Surveying measures not only the distance between two points but also the change in elevation. As part of their coursework, civil engineering students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science used professional surveying gear recently to take measurements on SU’s Shaw Quad.

“We are doing surveying and leveling,” said Shah Khatari ’20. “We are basically learning how to be accurate with these machines so the way we do that is we’re measuring elevation distance from different parts of campus and we’re going all the way around a certain area to the starting point.”

“This exercise has to do with leveling and calculating error,” said SUNY ESF student Brett Leavitt.

“Students passing by, that’s just a matter of waiting it out, being patient,” said Khatari.

“There are a lot of reasons why we need to know elevations,” said Nadia McMicheal ’21. “We can calculate the heights of buildings, how roads are set. the terrain something is built on”

“We are all beginners in this step using these new instruments we are not familiar with so we are trying to put our brains together, trying to problem solve in order to figure out the best answer,” said Leavitt. “The hands on experience is probably the best part, the opportunity we are able to have here.”