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| Will he get a strike? Howell Heck tries out a concrete bowling ball, similar to those his students will make. Unfortunately, his mold for these does not make round balls. |
Celebrating 25 years at Florida Tech this fall, Dr. Howell Heck, associate professor of civil engineering, is knee-deep in contaminants, landfills, demolition, recycling, reuse and waste reduction. When not teaching and conducting funded research—when not publishing, presenting and applying for new grants—he pursues work on an innovative recycling/waste reduction program that helps Habitat for Humanity.
In the summer, Heck squeezes in time for ocean fishing and scuba diving. This isn’t surprising for someone who grew up near lakes and rivers in Arkansas and whose family owned a houseboat.
But, even over the busy three-month respite, he is still thinking about how to reach young people. He doesn’t think there is a great enough awareness of the career opportunities in civil engineering.
“Most students don’t know what civil engineering is, but it is one of the oldest branches of engineering,” says Heck.
“Just drive down the road and anytime you see construction you know that there’s a civil engineer involved in the process.”
Simply put, civil engineers work with development, designing and supervising development projects. They also cope with many of the planet’s serious problems by designing solutions to hazardous waste disposal, polluted waterways, crowded airports and congested highways.
Heck focuses on waste reuse and recycling. “You reuse by taking something discarded and giving it new life in the same form—a recapped tire, for example. When you recycle, you create something completely new from the waste material, such as crumb rubber used in playgrounds,” Heck explains.
Most recently, he teamed up with other faculty to create the equivalent of lemonade from lemons in two projects.
Under a Florida Department of Transportation grant, he and Dr. Paul Cosentino, civil engineering professor, are researching how reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) can be used to build and improve roadways. After milling, the RAP can go into many phases of highway construction. Its use frees up landfill space, provides necessary construction material and saves disposal costs. The two scientists are still testing how various additives can make the RAP stronger and more efficient.
Heck continues to collaborate on separating landfill gas with Dr. Manolis Tomadakis, associate professor of chemical engineering. They are trying a new way—pressure swing absorption—to separate the various gases in landfills into pure streams of each component gas. This makes recovered gases more valuable and easier to use.
His pet project is his work for Habitat for Humanity. This project generates income by reducing waste and recycling, through a Brevard County Solid Waste Management grant of about $100,000. The money, in part, funds graduate student Deepak Chandra.
“Deepak and I are diverting a lot of the construction and demolition waste that would go into our landfills. We take it instead to Habitat’s ReStore in Melbourne,” says Heck. “We’re finding better ways to collect the material, store it and to transport it from construction and demolition sites.”
Heck helps young people understand how projects like this one can help build a better world through the “hands-on” Camp Dream Builders.
He spends much of the summer planning then presenting Camp Dream Builders. These one-week programs in July introduce high school and middle school students to the perhaps, un-sexy, yet underexposed and challenging world of civil engineering. The popular camps are a means to showcase opportunities and engender interest in a career field currently suffering a severe shortage.
“We try to encourage the students to eventually study civil engineering by exposing them to designing and building things,” says Heck. Son of a mechanical engineer, he has built things his entire life. In the age of video games, he knows that this doesn’t happen so much today.
He recalls how “one female camper told him that in his camp she used a screwdriver for the first time.”
Teaching Camp Dream Builders, Heck says, is an example of the flexibility he and fellow faculty are permitted in the College of Engineering.
“I started out here 25 years ago focusing more on water and waste water treatment. Now almost all my research is in solid waste.
“Faculty here are free to team up with others and pursue their own interests as they develop,” he says. “I think, compared to other engineering schools, we have a lot of freedom and a lot of say in the direction of our departments. This could be why I’ve been here so long.”
Karen Rhine |
