Extreme Engineer of the Month

Profile: Jessica Olson, Agricultural Engineer, United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

Education: B.S. in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Minnesota

Favorite Classes: Physics, Heat Transfer, Watershed Engineering, and Surveying

Best Skills: Communicating and problem solving—evaluating the problem and working with all interested parties to develop and implement the solution.

Hobbies: Spending time with family, camping, reading, running, and cooking.

Role Models: "My parents for being supportive and setting an example of hard work—also engineers I worked with early in my career who demonstrated the ability to excel in their field and to balance work with life."

Advice: "Try many different things in college, even if they don't directly relate to your major. Pursue things that are interesting to you and ask a lot of questions. Don't be afraid to ask a question. Chances are if you don't know the answer neither do the people sitting next to you."

Early Decisions—To Be or Not to Be

Like many who have found engineering to be a good career fit, Jessica didn't know much about the field when she was in high school. She enjoyed math and science, however, and a teacher suggested she consider engineering. Jessica took that advice and enrolled at Marquette University with the intention of pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering and possibly entering the medical profession. At Marquette, she got a good foundation in general engineering classes and realized just how broad a field it is. "Engineering covers a lot of ground," she says.

Following her freshman year, Jessica transferred to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she continued working toward her engineering degree. It wasn't until after taking an introductory agricultural engineering course during her sophomore year that Jessica narrowed her interest to agricultural engineering. Agricultural engineering appealed to Jessica's love of nature and the outdoors. In addition, the agricultural engineering department at the U of M offered a smaller and more personal educational experience than many of the larger, more traditional engineering fields.

She knew she was in the right field, but she was still struggling to define her professional path for the future. An avid reader with a love of writing, she considered merging her liberal arts side with her analytical side to become a technical writer. With this in mind, she minored in English. But her two summer co-op experiences with the Natural Resources Conservation Service was "like a light bulb going off," she says. Through these experiences she realized her niche lay in agricultural engineering.

Co-op to Career Path

Jessica spent her first summer with NRCS in the classical sense of agricultural engineering—at dairy farms inspecting agricultural waste management systems. She also worked to implement grassed waterways to prevent soil erosion caused by rainfall runoff from farm fields. She got a taste for the field and liked spending much of her time outdoors.

During her second summer, Jessica was involved with the construction inspection of a flood retention dam restoration. She also worked on restoring wetlands and wildlife ponds. One project focused on helping a landowner return land that had been cleared and drained for farming back to its original condition as a wetland. One of her favorite aspects of that assignment was "crunching numbers" to determine the watershed area, the flow of water coming in, and the type of structure that would be needed to accomplish the project. Another skill she found useful was surveying—something she still enjoys doing today.

She did one final internship with a private environmental engineering consulting firm to get a sense of her full range of options. After graduating from the U of M, NRCS offered her a position as an engineer in training—EIT as they are called. The program offered rotations in various aspects of the work so that she'd get exposed to lots of different projects.

From Water to Cows

In her first professional position with NRCS, Jessica was able to combine bioengineering—the "softer" side of engineering—with the more traditional structural side. One of her responsibilities was evaluating the type of plants that would work in combination with structural elements to reinforce a stream bank. She also worked on waste management systems to help farmers utilize animal waste as a resource and eliminate pollution problems that resulted from animal feeding operations (AFO). "I am proud of what we do because we're providing a solution that will ideally help a farmer's operation run more smoothly and eliminate pollution," she said.

After two years, Jessica took on a new role at NCRS that involved a prairie and wetland restoration project. This work—done in tandem with the Nature Conservancy—was similar to Jessica's co-op experience, but on a much larger scale—24,000 acres to be exact! Here Jessica honed her problem-solving and communication skills. She liked taking the differing perspectives of many groups from the private land owners to the government entities, building consensus, developing a restoration plan, and then following the plan through to completion.

Following a two-year stint with the Joint Powers Area of five Soil and Water Conservation Districts in northeast Minnesota, Jessica returned to NCRS to her current position. One of the things Jessica likes best about her career in agricultural engineering is the variety of projects she has responsibility for—from stream bank restoration to agricultural waste management to storm-water management. Because Duluth is situated on the banks of Lake Superior, which is considered the gem of the area, there is a high interest level in keeping the lake's water clean.

Among her projects at the Joint Powers Area, Jessica helped to treat runoff from parking lots, which can dramatically affect streams and lakes by increasing pollutant levels—including water temperature. Many species, including trout, can only survive in a certain water temperature range. Jessica worked with a team of professionals, implementing relatively new biological approaches to manage storm-water. These included diverting the storm-water through a grassed waterway to a bioretention pond with a special soil mixture seeded with native plants to treat runoff. Most storm-water in cities reaches lakes or rivers without being cleaned. By diverting the water through the grass and then the bioretention pond, Jessica's team created two cleansing opportunities, before the parking lot runoff water reaches the lake.

In her current position at NRCS, Jessica has worked with treating milk-house wash water runoff—the water that is used to wash the dairy parlor following milking. Before the wash water is discarded, it must be cleaned to remove any traces of milk fat, manure, and other contaminants. Jessica is working with a dairy farmer to implement a newer method of treating the wash water—directing it through a septic tank, then bark-bed for treatment. Jessica is also working with the farmer to implement a manure composting barn. Adding sawdust to the cows' manure and then mixing it twice a day allows it to break down to create compost. This process is an effective way to deal with waste that actually generates some heat to keep the cows warmer—an important consideration for those Minnesota winters!

Another cutting edge project Jessica is developing is a rain garden. This project is another approach to dealing with runoff from paved surfaces. Using soil and plants, Jessica is cleansing water runoff from a parking lot to prevent pollution of Lake Superior. To intercept the flow of storm-water, which left untreated carries pollutant-laden sediment and high temperatures to the lake. Jessica is designing a shallow depression rain garden for a one-inch rainfall event running off from the paved surface. The depression will allow the water to cool and sediments to settle out by reducing the velocity of the flow. The rain garden is designed to hold water for less than 24 hours. The garden will be planted with native species to further clean the water, and one of Jessica's challenges is to find plants that can withstand both flash floods and drier conditions.

Engineering—Life in Balance

One thing that Jessica now appreciates is the importance of family time. This was not on her radar screen when she was selecting her career. After getting married and having a baby, she now fully appreciates the balance her early mentors demonstrated between "work and life." Jessica's job as an agricultural engineer allows her to actively engage with the world around her and, through her professional practice and expertise, make it a better place, while still having plenty of time to spend with her family.