Summer lab gives cadets engineering experience

  • Published
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  A group of Academy cadets are spending their first weeks of summer getting their hands dirty to gain practical engineering experience.

The three-week Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory exposes cadets to several aspects of civil engineering, including heavy equipment operation, steel bridge construction, designing and pouring concrete beams and paving portions of a road.

Additionally, cadets will work together to construct two hogans, cadet-designed versions of traditional eight-sided Navajo homes, from the ground up. The homes later will be donated to members of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.

Cadets learn from a cadre of upperclassmen and active duty civil engineers, as well as several members of the Reserve who make the trip each year to help mentor and lead the future Air Force engineers.

The three weeks of FERL, held in the Jacks Valley training area, follow a two-week session of visits to active-duty Air Force bases, where cadets work with civil engineering officers and receive a first-hand look at base-level civil engineering operations.

The FERL course is offered each year during the first summer period and is a requirement for every cadet majoring in civil engineering. 

Comment on this story   (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

Click here to view the comments/letters page