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The Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is eyeing a new emphasis within the department – a Land Development Design Initiative (LDDI). “Our students do not get significant exposure to land development as a career choice when they matriculate through our curriculum,” said Randy Dymond, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and chairman of the LDDI advisory group. “We have up to one-half of our students ending up working in this field, so there’s a gap in getting our students more acquainted with putting the knowledge all together for land development projects.”

LDDI is the process of changing the function of a parcel of land to improve its use. “From a civil engineer's perspective, it is the process of studying feasible alternatives within the bounds of applicable laws and codes, and designing the site and its infrastructure to accommodate the need in the most effective and environmentally conscious way,” Dymond said. “This includes designing systems such as roadway access, water distribution, sanitary sewers, storm water management, and erosion and sediment control.”
Over the course of the summer, Dymond and a group of land development practitioners will begin looking at existing courses and designing other courses that could be added to repackaging a LDDI concentration for launch in the fall. Already, the department has decided to add a senior elective Land Development and Design course in the spring. In the past, the department only offered this class once a semester. Now, it will be offered twice.
Another potential course is a special topics class, “Advanced Topics in Land Development” for students in their last spring semester. This course could follow the existing Land Development Design course (CEE 4274) and would be taught by several land development professionals.
For freshmen and sophomores entering into the civil engineering field, the LDDI group has proposed a reception and seminar on land development. The group also hopes to include regularly scheduled guest speakers at the monthly student ASCE chapter meeting and producing a series of video or slide-show project summaries that can be reviewed from a webpage.
Virginia Tech CEE students already are in high demand, but engineering consultants and developers are “crying out for educated engineers that can help them today. If we can expand our students’ opportunities, that would be great,” Dymond said.
The civil engineers who go through the LDDI track will be more of a generalist than a specialist. “This incorporates all facets of civil and environmental engineering,” he said. “This really does use everything that you can do in CEE -- structures, geotechnical, environmental engineering, water resources, road design and storm sewers.”
The CEE Department held exploratory meetings with corporations and engineers in Northern Virginia, the Richmond area, Chesapeake, and in Roanoke to test interest and support. “We have had tremendous support in terms of people volunteering their time in helping us redesign the curriculum and organizing practitioner involvement, and in terms of getting our students out into the job site and having professionals talk to students about career development.”
That support translates into 40 professionals who have volunteered their time to create the program. Those 40 professionals will be invited to an organizational meeting on June 16 to discuss details.
The new concentration already has generated student interest as well. “We have a lot of interest from students who already know something about land development. “This is a win/win situation, and our students are going to come out as the biggest winners.” Long-term, faculty are looking at the possibility of adding a master’s degree course in two years. “But come fall, we’ll have a better plan of what will come next,” Dymond added.