Surveying on Samford Lawn

It's not uncommon to be driving through downtown Auburn on a nice day when all of a sudden a group of students appear on Samford Lawn with yellow equipment similar to poles and sticks.

Their tools may look funny to someone who doesn't know what they are doing, but these students are actually Civil Engineering majors taking a surveying class.

For Katherine Hollinger, a senior Civil Engineering major, standing outside on Samford Lawn with these odd-shaped tools is a weekly occurrence.

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"In this class, we learn to calculate angles, elevations, heights and distances of different properties," said Hollinger. "Whenever a company or a person purchases land, they will pay a surveyor to survey the land."

The report of the survey will tell the exact square footage of the land and many other details that are essential to building on a property.

Although Hollinger does not plan on being a surveyor after she graduates, all Civil Engineering majors are required to take this class. This major is also the only major required to take it.

If a student wishes to be a surveyor after college, they would have to get a degree in surveying and from there will become a licensed surveyor.

"One of the tools we use to survey the land is called a total station," Hollinger said. "It helps us read the distances and elevations of land."

This total station can also do many other things like read the temperature if needed, and before a survey of the land is begun, the total station would be leveled for accurate readings.

The lab part of the class is where the students actually go out to Samford Lawn and College Street to do the surveying. Each week, they do different projects to learn different methods of surveying.

"One week, we calculated the height of Samford Hall using the total station," Hollinger said.

Other weeks, the classes have moved up and down College Street starting at a benchmark point and moving to different turning stations to find elevations between each point.

Hollinger remembers in the first lab of the semester, the class measured 100 foot distance, then measured it in different ways.

"After measuring 100 feet, I measured it in paces and learned how I could measure a distance using my paces then use a formula to determine the exact distance," Hollinger said.

The labs are one time a week and there are about 20 students in each lab section. The students are put into groups of four during lab and the labs always meet outside as long as the weather permits. The calculations are kept in a field book that is turned in at the end of every lab.

"This lab is interesting," Hollinger said, "but I don't plan on being a surveyor when I graduate from Auburn."