Teaching

Dr. Merwade teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in the hydraulics and hydrology area of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. At undergraduate level, he has primarily taught CE 34000 (Hydraulics) at junior level, and CE 54200 (Hydrology) and CE 54900 (Computational Watershed Hydrology) at senior and graduate levels. Dr. Merwade has also taught advanced classes such as CE 69700 (Advanced Computational Watershed Hydrology) at the graduate level. In addition to teaching traditional courses within Civil Engineering, Dr. Merwade has also been active in working with the Global Engineering Program at Purdue to lead Global Design Team (GDT) courses. Over the last few years, he has coordinated GDT courses related to water harvesting in Lebanon, irrigation water quality in India, and water access in rural Tanzania.

Dr. Merwade believes in a teaching philosophy that enhances students’ problem solving skills. In addition to helping students understand the underlying concepts, a problem solving approach enables students to apply the concepts learned in the classroom to specific engineering problems. Dr. Merwade also believes in connecting coursework with industry projects so students are prepared to handle engineering problems in the real world upon graduation. In his CE 54200 class, students are exposed to popular computational models that are used in the industry. Besides preparing students for industry, Dr. Merwade also believes in using coursework to expose students to cutting edge research in surface water hydrology. A major portion of CE 54900 class includes a term project that involves developing a research question or hypothesis, and then addressing the research issues by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and latest public domain geospatial and temporal data. Most of the lab material that Dr. Merwade uses is available on his website and has been used by students, faculty and working professionals around the world (more than 5,000 downloads each year). His classroom teaching endeavors on using real data and computational models has led to educational research grants and papers. One of his key contributions is the development of a cyberinfrastructure in collaboration with the Science and Education Resources Center (SERC) at Carleton College to collaboratively create, share and publish educational material for hydrology (see SERC link below).

If you want the latest version of my syllabus for CE 340000 (Hydraulics), CE 54200 (Hydrology), and CE 54900 (Computational Watershed Hydrology), feel free to email me at vmerwade "at" purdue "dot" edu

CE 44200 - Introduction to Hydrology Class Videos

Due to COVID-19 outbreak, we are going virtual. I will be posting all my course material starting from 03/23/2020 here. You will only need to watch the videos, but feel free to download the presentation (pdf format) for future reference. For any questions, feel free to email me at vmerwade "at" purdue "dot" edu

Week Topics and Video Links Presentation File
03/23/2020 Streamflow Introduction Length: 18 mins
Streamflow Measurement Length: 20 mins.
Hydrograph Types Length: 8 mins.
Why Separate Baseflow Length: 13 mins.
Baseflow Separation Methods Length: 21 mins.
HEC-HMS Lab on Baseflow Length: 7 mins
Presentation File
Presentation File
Presentation File
None
Presentation File
Tutorial
03/30/2020 Assignment 11 - Baseflow Separation using Straight Line Method Length: 8 mins
Assignment 11 - Baseflow Separation using Fixed Base Method Length: 7 mins.
Assignment 11 - Baseflow Separation using Variable Slope Method Length: 8 mins.
Assignment 12 - Computing Stormwater and Baseflow Volume Length: 10 mins.
Introduction to Unit Hydrograph - 1 Length: 14 mins.
Introduction to Unit Hydrograph - 2 Length: 19 mins.
Derivation of Unit Hydrograph using Adjustment Factor Method Length: 16 mins.
Assignment on Developing Unit Hydrograph using Adjustment Factor Method Length: 17 mins.
Assignment 11
Assignment 12
Assignment 13
04/06/2020 Unit Hydrograph - Convolution Equation Length: 19 mins
Assignment 14-Part 1 Convolution Equation Length: 20 mins
Assignment 14-Part 2 Convolution Equation Length: 11 mins
Changing Unit Hydrograph Duration using S-Hydrograph Length: 27 mins
Assignment 15- Changing Duration of Unit Hydrograph using S Hydrograph Method Length: 12 mins
Definition of Synthetic Unit Hydrograph and some watershed characteristics Length: 30 mins
Presentation
Assignment 14
Assignment 15
04/13/2020 SCS/NRCS Unit Hydrograph Length: 19 mins
Assignment 16 - SCS Unit Hydrograph Length: 12 mins
Presentation
Assignment 16
04/20/2020 Manning's Equation Length: 15 mins
Assignment 17 - Application of Manning's Equation Length: 10 mins
Introduction to 1D HEC-RAS Modeling Length: 32 mins
Lab to create a simple 1D HEC-RAS model for a Single Reach Length: 39 mins
Hydrology Statistics - Exceedance Probability and Return Period Length: 22 mins
Flood Frequency Analysis - Part 1 Length: 20 mins.
Assignment 18 - Simple Flood Frequency Analysis Length: 20 mins
Assignment 17
Presentation
Lab Tutorial
Assignment 18
04/27/2020 Flood Frequency Analysis - Part 2 Length: 33 mins
Assignment 19 - Flood Frequency Analysis using EV1 and LP3 Distributions Length: 17 mins
Presentation
Assignment 19

Useful Links

Hydrology Youtube Channel This channel hosts videos from me and students in my hydrology classes at Purdue. Subscribe and/or contribute!

SERC Hydrology Modules This site hosts online learning lessons in the form of steps and units. Use, contribute and get involved!

WATER Tanzania This site hosts information related to our global design team for Tanzania.
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