Virtual reality may make a difference in Camden; Rowan students helping address sewer problems with high-tech equipment

This summer has taken 10 Rowan University College of Engineering students to Camden as much as it has to the shore.

A couple of times a week, generally Tuesdays and Thursdays, they’ve traveled up Rt. 676 from Glassboro and elsewhere, working under the guidance of Dr. Shreekanth Mandayam, chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering program; Dr. Yusuf Mehta, a civil and environmental engineering professor; and George Lecakes, a graduate assistant at the suburban school.

Right now, the Rowan team is in the early stages of a project called Development of a Virtual Reality Simulation of the Flooding Characteristics for the Cramer Hill Neighborhood in the City of Camden. The team started the project in March to address storm water management concerns in a 50-block area comprising Cramer Hill, specifically the Baldwin’s Run/Von Neida Park area, where flooding and other problems occur during bad weather.

Partnership

Camden-based Cooper’s Ferry Development Association has been working for the past several years in partnership with the Cramer Hill Community Development Corporation to assist the neighborhood with planning the creation of open space and residential development along the back channel of the Delaware River, as well as with several other major infrastructure improvement projects in the neighborhood.

One of these projects has been the redevelopment of the heavily used Von Neida Park, which was built over the old Baldwin’s Run streambed.  Rather than simply design a traditional stormwater sewer line to handle some of the chronic flooding, Cooper’s Ferry wanted to first develop a long-term plan for eliminating flooding in the park and in the residential areas surrounding the park.

So far, the students — undergraduate and graduate electrical and computer engineering majors  as well as civil and environmental engineering majors — have been collecting data related to sewerage backups in the vicinity bordered by Cleveland Avenue, Harrison Avenue, N. 27th Street and N. 33rd Street. Eventually they will use a state-of-the art virtual reality system, based in a Rowan Engineering lab at the South Jersey Technology Park in Mantua Township, to search for possible remedies for the problem. They will conduct a large part of their work in the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, known as a CAVE®, a 100-cubic-foot, fully immersive, navigable and interactive virtual reality system where Rowan Engineering teams also have conducted research for the United States Navy and NASA.

Beginning Stages

But today, they are doing the preliminary legwork necessary to find a solution to the water problems as part of a project funded by close to $70,000 from Cooper’s Ferry.  Since the spring, the students have been tackling the fundamentals: surveying the area, calculating the topography and taking digital photographs of houses and businesses in the vicinity in order to map every detail possible in a virtual reality three-dimensional model in the CAVE. Later, they will gather aerial photography, historical rainfall and tide-level data, historical flooding information and other details related to the area. When each structure, tree and pipe is incorporated, the Rowan team will be able to model the 50 blocks as they are and as they are proposed. And when the virtual reality model is complete, the team will be able to simulate flooding events and respond to user-initiated queries or “what if” types of questions.

“The whole idea is to get the complete virtual model of these 50 blocks,” Mandayam said. “It’s slow going. It just takes a lot of time to take photographs and measurements and collate them.”

The area can be pretty bleak when foul weather hits, in part because Camden does not have separate storm water and sewer systems. “When it rains,” Mandayam said, “if the system overflows it floods sewage everywhere.”

But the seemingly constant rain South Jersey experienced in June was a blessing in a way. “This bad weather has been an asset because we know exactly where the problems are,” the professor said.

Neighborhood Support

Neighbors have been inquisitive and supportive. “Every time our students are out there, the residents come out to talk to them and to point out where the flooding occurs,” Mandayam said. “People are mostly helpful. We tell them what they are doing, and they appreciate it.”

“While we may be using virtual reality to determine the causes of flooding in the Von Neida Park area, the actuality of the situation touches everyone involved,” said Rowan’s Lecakes, 26, of Haddonfield, who earned an M.S. in engineering with a specialization in electrical engineering and a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Rowan. “(When) speaking with many of the (residents) during our site visits, they have told us where they experience flooding and how it has only worsened over the years. Some residents have spent their entire lives with the problem, recalling some 30 years ago when they had to push their family cars out of the floodwater as small children.  A project like this doesn't just motivate our lab to solve new and interesting problems in city simulations and virtual reality modeling, it compels us on an emotional level.”

“We are using state-of-the-art technology to solve real problems and have to implement solutions that have not been created yet.  This gives us the chance to form a solution that is specific to this flooding problem,” added Shawn Murray, 19, a junior electrical and computer engineering major from Williamstown.

Virtual Assistance

Added Mandayam, "You can simulate a virtual representation of these 50 blocks and simulate rainfall and flooding events based on the current infrastructure and proposed infrastructure."

Based on the modeling, which is part of a nine-month pilot study, the Rowan team could propose to Cooper’s Ferry possible ways to redevelop the area, including homes as well as the drainage system.

Eventually, the Cooper’s Ferry team hopes the Rowan work will provide it with enough details to present a capital budget for upgrading the water and sewer lines to the City of Camden and New Jersey Economic Development Authority, a budget that will enable the organization to pursue long-term solutions to the flooding and sewerage problem in Cramer Hill and possibly elsewhere in the city.

“For this task, it made sense for Cooper’s Ferry to partner with Rowan’s College of Engineering, which has a very talented staff of professors and students as well as access to this amazing technology,” said Anthony Perno, who is the executive vice president of Cooper’s Ferry. “We view this work with Rowan as the beginnings of a long-term partnership involving city government, Cooper’s Ferry and Rowan University to design solutions to some of Camden’s most pressing infrastructure needs.”


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