CAL POLY'S THRIVING IRRIGATION TRAINING CENTER
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or nearly 30 years, the Irrigation Training and Research Center at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) has been supporting the university’s thriving BioResource and Agricultural Engineering (BRAE) department. While many universities have downsized or eliminated their ag engineering programs, Cal Poly’s BRAE department has seen its enrollment triple in the last 10 years. The Irrigation Training and Research Center also supports established irrigation management professionals with 3-day educational workshops. Irrigation Leader writer Parker Kenyon spoke with the director of the Irrigation Training and Research Center, Stuart Styles, about the beginnings of the center, its mission, and the classes it offers both to university students and to irrigation management professionals. Parker Kenyon: Please tell us about your professional and educational background.
Parker Kenyon: What were the motivations behind starting the Irrigation Training and Research Center? Stuart Styles: We created the center in 1989 as a location to train university students who were taking irrigationrelated classes as well as professionals from the irrigation industry, including manufacturers, dealers, and irrigation districts. One of our fundamental objectives was to support the teaching program at Cal Poly. The center was created to help fund and maintain a strong agricultural-engineering program with a water resources emphasis. We are housed under the BRAE major, and it is in our charter to
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A pump platform used for hands-on training sessions at Cal Poly's Water Resources Facility.
support that program while also doing these great things for the irrigation world. One challenge is that the BRAE program’s hands-on classes, which offer students experience with realworld technologies, have become expensive to maintain. Parker Kenyon: What are the educational programs you offer, and how do they relate to Cal Poly’s BRAE program? Stuart Styles: The educational program has two aspects. First, we teach 13 unique irrigation courses for the university. Those courses are primarily suited for engineers, but we also do classes for nonengineers. One of our introductory courses on irrigation management skills attracts over 100 students per quarter. Second, we conduct over 60 workshops per year for irrigation management professionals. Around 1,000 people attend those workshops. These workshops deal with the full spectrum of irrigation and drainage projects, including drip-irrigation design, irrigation management, pump design, and pump evaluation. We also do workshops on irrigation project modernization and cover topics like building reservoirs, regulating structures, and flow measurement facilities for full-blown water projects. Parker Kenyon: Would you say that your center draws a significant number of students to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo? Stuart Styles: The short answer is yes. The setup, creation, and operation of the center have really helped support our agricultural-engineering program. We have around three times as many students in our program now than we did 10 years ago. That is both because we have a strong program and because California just experienced a 5-year drought, increasing awareness of the need for water management.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE IRRIGATION TRAINING AND RESEARCH CENTER.
Stuart Styles: I am the director of the Irrigation Training and Research Center at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. The center was founded in 1989, so it is coming up on its 30th anniversary. I have my doctorate from the University of California, Davis, and I have a master of business administration and an undergraduate degree from Cal Poly. I worked in the industry for 7 years before coming to Cal Poly about 25 years ago to teach and to work with the research center to develop new contracts and technical projects throughout the western United States.
A pump platform used for hands-on training sessions at Cal Poly's Water Resources Facility.
