When ISU students sign up to do research with professors, they usually emerge with something more than just data – real-life experience.

Patrick Murphy, sophomore in agricultural engineering and agronomy, was one of four undergraduate students who participated in the study of compost at road construction sites this past summer sponsored by the Department of Natural Resources.

“My plan was not to go home for the summer,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t my area, but it sounded real interesting.”

Murphy said he enjoyed the faculty, co-workers and his experiences so much that he changed his major area of concentration to match that of the project.

“I had a chance to do a lot of different things – sampling, machinery and apparatus,” he said. “I learned quite a bit in the lab working with the samplings. It was fun to come to work, too.”

Russell Persyn, an agricultural and biosystems engineering doctoral candidate who served as student and field coordinator on the project, said the research is perfect for Iowa State.

“I like to work in water quality and areas where there hasn’t been a lot of quantification,” Persyn said. “Coming from a land-grant institute, I liked that it was a good project that was going to improve the state of Iowa and benefit the tax payers. The goal is to generate a win-win situation for Iowans.”

Tom Glanville, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and a research project leader, said the project benefits everyone involved.

“We’re not just doing the research for the sponsor’s benefit,” he said. “It is an excellent training opportunity, and we’ve been happy to have eight of our students working on this project for the last two summers. Some of them are still working in the lab for us this fall, helping to process some of the samples.

“So they’ve gotten to see the complete field process on how the plots were set out, how the samples were collected, how the samples were treated to ensure that their integrity was maintained,” Glanville said. “Some have even gotten to see how the samples are analyzed in the lab.”

Tom Richard, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and another research project leader, said students built and installed complex equipment, installed a rainfall simulator on each plot, measured rills and gullies formed by the rainfall and collected water samples.

“The students were just incredible working as a team and getting a lot done,” he said.