Engineering Students Help Build UTPD Training Wall
In reviewing its fitness training test earlier this year, the University of Tennessee Police Department identified the need for a wall to add to its obstacle course. Rather than relying on an outside source to design and build the wall, the UTPD believed the ideal solution would be to collaborate with a group on campus.
UTPD officers knew about the college’s maker space on the ground floor of the Zeanah Engineering Complex. They knew it had it all the equipment and tools needed to build a wall.
Officer Adam Neely reached out to Michael Allen, an academic support specialist for the Engineering Fundamentals Program (EFP), to discuss the possibility of having engineering students in the First-Year Design Studio Wood Shop help with the project.
Allen and the students went to work last spring, resulting in a wall that stands six feet high and expands eight feet long. Over the last few months, the UTPD has been using it with great success during fitness training sessions.
“After our initial meeting to discuss what we needed, the EFP team took the lead and handled the huge task of creating the test seamlessly,” Neely said. “We truly appreciate their willingness to help, and for going above and beyond our expectations.”
Allen did the initial planning and purchased all the materials necessary to build the wall. The students gathered in the design studio over the course of a few days and put together the framing structure, the siding, and attached braces on both sides of the wall to keep it steady.
“It was quite the operation—cutting everything out, measuring, getting all the pieces sized, cut, primed, and ready to go,” said Nason Ruzecki, a junior chemical engineering major. “Once it was all constructed and the braces were on, we all sat on the top and took a picture.”
Team-building activity
Rebecca Mozingo, a senior electrical engineering major, has worked in the wood shop at Kao ICS for nearly two years. Being able to work on a project that she knows will be used on a regular basis was rewarding.
“It was great to make a finished product, instead of just kind of slapping some stuff together,” she said. “I usually help with EF projects that students are working on, and it’s like, ‘okay, it works.’ But with this project, we were making it pretty and making it functional.”
Ethan Edwards, a senior mechanical engineering, enjoyed the teamwork involved to accomplish the goal of building the wall.
“I think it was really nice to see that we were able to take all the different majors within our department and accomplish this,” Edwards said. “Michael’s expertise of doing so much of that work over the years helped to get us all on board and streamline it so that we all were able to pitch in.”
Helpful training tool
The wall has been incorporated into the UTPD’s incentive fitness testing for current officers and new hires. Successfully climbing and safely dismounting from the wall is a critical measure of physical readiness and is something the officers could face in their regular duties.
Once the wall was transported to the UTPD, the officers invited the engineering students over to their headquarters and gave them a chance to run through the obstacle course.
“That was really fun,” said Ruzecki, whose time completing the course would have passed the officer test. “It’s just neat to be able to be involved with something that the police officers were using. It was nice to get a chance to meet them and hang out with them. It’s a good feeling knowing that we were able to help them in some way. I feel very lucky to have been a part of that.”
The UTPD officers were happy to collaborate on something that was mutually beneficial and allowed them to interact more with students.
“We’re so grateful to the First-Year Design Studio’s Wood Shop for making this obstacle wall a reality and can’t wait to put it to good use for years to come,” Neely said. “A big thank you to everyone who worked on the project. We hope it was as rewarding for them as it was for us.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])