Innovative student-built prototypes aim to support flood mitigation efforts in Vernon County

Conservation leaders in Wisconsin’s most flood prone county are asking questions about their streams, and University of Wisconsin–Madison students are building tools to help them figure out the answers. 

“We need to start figuring out what these storms are doing to streams, what snow melt is doing to the streams, and, for the sake of watershed planning, where do we need to focus our conservation dollars and how are we going to notice the results,” David Hettenbach, the conservationist for Vernon County, said. 

Vernon County has an extensive history with flooding. Since 1998, Vernon County has been included in a FEMA Federal Disaster Declaration nearly a dozen times. Two severe flooding incidents in 2018 caused catastrophic damage and prompted a community-supported oral history project called Stories from the Flood.

Inspired by the Iowa Flood Center, Hettenbach wanted to pursue a university partnership that could help Vernon County. The Iowa Flood Center is part of the University of Iowa College of Engineering and is the nation’s only academic research center dedicated entirely to flooding. In particular, Hettenbach wanted to see if the center’s network of stream gauges could be replicated in Vernon County. 

Through a partnership with UniverCity Alliance, Hettenbach worked with engineering students to develop two prototypes. The first would effectively measure stream height and the second would measure runoff at the edges of fields.

“Working with UniverCity has been a force multiplier,” Hettenbach said. “It’s been really helpful to get more work done and explore some of these avenues that … maybe we could have done, but it might have taken us two years.” 

In a 15-week semester, students in Interdisciplinary Engineering 170: Design Practicum research, create a problem statement, meet with a client, brainstorm a product and plan, and fabricate a prototype on campus in the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Lab. 

Anna Fairweather, a freshman studying engineering, said she was surprised to work on a hands-on project for a client during her first year of college but really excited by the experience.

“It’s definitely helped me with a lot of physical skills and skills in working on a team and working through a problem,” Fairweather said. “As someone interested in sustainability and making a real impact in the community, it has been really cool.”

This is the goal of UniverCity Alliance: Supporting the priorities of local communities with tangible deliverables while also providing students with high-impact learning experiences that prepare them for future careers. 

Partnering with this engineering course was a first for UniverCity Alliance. Because the needs of local government vary widely, UniverCity Alliance Managing Director Megan McBride is always excited to make new partnerships on campus. 

“It is inspiring to know that there are an abundance of resources at UW–Madison and people who are truly dedicated to working with Wisconsin communities,” McBride said. “We appreciate our community partners trusting us to find the best match to meet their needs.” 

For College of Engineering Associate Teaching Professor Tracy Puccinelli, the opportunities to work with community partners give her students the “why” behind complex, abstract math and physics questions. Students learn how to apply their knowledge to an engineering design in sometimes ambiguous situations where there isn’t always one correct answer.

Incorporating community-based projects into students’ learning also imparts to students the importance of how their work can improve the lives of others.

“It allows students to apply their skills in ways that directly benefit others while developing a stronger sense of professional responsibility and community engagement,” Puccinelli said. “For UW–Madison, these partnerships strengthen relationships with the broader community and create opportunities for sustained collaboration.”

Learning by innovating

Instructor Katie Kalscheur gets to see her students’ projects come to life – and the many steps that come in between.

“That’s where a lot of the learning happens: in the problem solving and innovating,” said Kalscheur, who oversaw the group developing the Vernon County prototypes. “It’s such a fun class to teach and the students get to really make an impact for the community.” 

The design practicum class focuses on teamwork and technical skills. Students communicate with their teammates and their client, present their work, create a poster, and make a video about their prototype project. 

Kalscheur said focusing on teamwork is a priority because these students will continue to work in groups throughout their engineering curriculum on campus, and it simulates the workplace.

“We want to make sure that they realize teamwork skills are just like any other skill, that the more you work at it, the better you get,” Kalscheur said. “These are really the soft skills, the professional skills that employers really want and that really make a big difference.” 

Students in this class have created mobility aids, rehabilitation devices, a sensory playhouse, and prosthetic legs for a cat. Kalscheur said the students quickly learn how to navigate different needs and realistic time and financial constraints by working with a client. 

They also get to see how their work can have a real impact on people’s lives. 

“I feel like this class is a good example of how the Wisconsin Idea is wonderful for everyone, that it’s such a great learning experience for the students, and that we’re able to give back to the community,” Kalscheur said. 

Henry Haakenson, a first-year engineering student in the class, feels this connection closely. His father grew up in Vernon County and several of his extended family members still live in the area.

“It’s definitely cool to see that I could actually be helping my family out as well (through this project),” Haakenson said. 

Building a prototype

Haakenson and his teammates, who worked on the stream height measuring device, demonstrated their prototype at a poster session on May 1. The prototype can measure the height of a water source, transit data from a sensor into a microprocessor, and then output the data into a graph. 

Their final design includes a solar panel, which converts sunlight into power that it then puts into a charge controller. Excess power recharges the battery, and the charge controller regulates the amount of energy put into the microprocessor.

Part of the group’s goal was to develop a tool that allows for easy and large-scale replication and is reasonably priced. Materials for this group’s prototype totaled $528. The gauges made at the Iowa Flood Center cost about $7,500, which is far less than gauges from the federal government. When a federal government agency stopped running a gauge in Riverdale, Iowa, the mayor learned it would cost about $100,000 to replace it. 

“With us being able to minimize the cost, we also hope that other counties could have the ability to look at our model and be able to model their own off of that, or even use our design, so they can have some kind of flood detection that’s cheaper than what the standard is right now,” Haakenson. 

The second group built a runoff monitor using a water sensor that measures the height of the liquid in which it is immersed. Similar to the first group, Vernon County emphasized portability and affordability. Materials for this group’s prototype totaled $272.46.

“Vernon County was looking for a measure to track the amount of agricultural runoff,” Claire Casson, who is also a freshman studying engineering, said, with the goal of implementing it on county fields and encouraging individuals to implement it on their own property. “Runoff can cause erosion and economic damage to the county.” 

Working with a community partner and developing a tool that has the potential to benefit Vernon County residents raised the stakes for the students. 

“I felt like there was someone you didn’t want to disappoint,” freshman Miles Kaiser said. “It added to me wanting to make this the best project possible.”

Learn more about submitting a project to the hands-on design engineering course here. Community and campus partners interested in working with UniverCity Alliance can email UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu for more information.

–Abigail Becker