Grace Pippin (left) and Dr. Jejal-Reddy Bathi recently spoke to a class of high school juniors about sustainable urban development and protecting water quality. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jejal-Reddy Bathi.
Grace Pippin loved her physics classes as a high school student at Baylor School, but she wasn’t sure how to turn her passion for science into a career. She’d never even heard of civil engineering.
Now as a rising senior civil engineering major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Pippin had the opportunity to help current East Ridge High School students see possibilities she nearly overlooked.
Along with Dr. Jejal-Reddy Bathi—an assistant professor of civil engineering at UTC who specializes in water quality research—she recently spoke to a class of juniors at East Ridge.
“I remember being in high school and loving physics but not knowing how to use that to help people,” said Pippin, a Chattanooga native. “I didn’t know what civil engineering was, I didn’t know that it was an option for me, and I kind of had to figure it out.”
At East Ridge, Bathi and Pippin talked to students about sustainable urban development, focusing on how smart land-use practices can prevent flooding and protect water quality. Using an online simulation, students were able to see how different types of development affect groundwater recharge and runoff, potentially leading to flooding issues.
“We gave them a hands-on online tool where they could play with it to understand the new development, what happens to the water and how the water balances change,” Bathi said. “Instead of going back into the clouds, it’s running into the rivers, flooding areas along the way. Whenever it rains, groundwater is supposed to go into the ground and that’s the water we drink.
“If land developments keep happening, groundwater is not going into the ground. The online tool displays how development changes the water cycle on land.”
Bathi and Pippin discussed the surprising overlap between engineering and the humanities, and how civil engineering can affect everyday life and communities.
“Dr. Bathi and I went there to talk to students about civil engineering, but also sustainable urban development and sustainable infrastructure, and how that can positively impact our community,” she said. “The students there were working on their end-of-year projects and had different topics they were interested in.
“Young people care about their community a lot more than we give them credit for.”
The approach resonated with the students, Pippin said.
“After talking one-on-one with them, there was one girl who was already thinking of how to apply the sustainable infrastructure to her project because she originally had done it on roads and potholes,” she said. “She was thinking about erosion and was able to add more to her own project.”
This summer, Pippin is assisting Bathi with research that involves exploring the behavior and control of microplastics in water systems. The goal is to prevent contamination of rivers and drinking water.
“We are in the middle of trying to understand how microplastics behave and are moving in the water environment,” Bathi said. “Pippin is helping us as we explore how these microplastics migrate into the environment and how we can control them before they go too far away from the environment they were introduced to.
“It’s bad if somebody tosses a bottle away into the environment but at least let’s not spread those microplastics all the way to the river. That’s the same river we are drinking from. We cannot filter the entire river.”
After graduation, Pippin plans to serve as a civil engineering officer in the U.S. Navy before pursuing graduate studies focused on water treatment and water quality.
“I’m definitely interested in the water industry within civil engineering,” she said. “It’s like physics, but you’re helping people and there’s a direct positive impact.”
Bathi said there is value in working with local schools to help promote engineering at UTC and showing them that they can partake in interesting and important research similar to Pippin.
“We always welcome high school students and teachers to learn all the things we offer here,” he said. “Often, faculty are willing to mentor students’ projects. This helps the community and introduces students to the possibilities in engineering.
“I want to encourage Pippin to go present at professional organizations, spread the word and use that as a network. She is an example for other students who can get that opportunity as well if they’re really interested.”
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