Yuba Water Agency Senior Hydro Engineer Matt Murray talks to a group at an active construction site along Marysville Road in the Yuba County foothills. Courtesy of Yuba Water Agency

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) – Yuba Water Agency engineers are meeting with approximately 60 Yuba County middle schoolers this week as part of a new pathway program to expand engineering education opportunities for Marysville Joint Unified School District students.

“We already have many of these courses, like robotics and coding, at some sites and we have started expanding these across the TK-12 system,” said Marysville Joint Unified School District Superintendent Fal Asrani. “Our new engineering pathway program is an example of a more formal and accessible option that is aligned to university standards so that students are better prepared to pursue a four-year degree, if they choose.”

Asrani spoke about the engineering pathway program during an update to Yuba Water Agency’s board of directors on Tuesday. The new pilot program includes three years of integrated math and four elective courses in coding, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Yuba Water Agency is providing in-kind support of the program by connecting its engineers with incoming and current Lindhurst High School students to talk more about their career paths and what it’s like working as an engineer at the agency. The meetings will be at active work sites and agency facilities such as New Bullards Bar Dam and Reservoir to help students connect classroom learning with real-world jobs and projects.

“As someone who grew up in the Yuba-Sutter area, left to pursue engineering and came back to work as an engineer for Yuba Water, to see more opportunities for young people to explore engineering and to be able to give kids the exposure to this career field is just so exciting,” said Yuba Water Flood Risk Reduction Manager Sami Nall.

Update on partnership with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and new levee monitoring pilot

During Tuesday’s Yuba Water Agency meeting, agency staff also shared an update on plans to improve levee monitoring throughout Yuba County in partnership with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS), part of the University of California.

“Today happens to be the anniversary of the 1986 levee break on the Yuba River that impacted thousands of people, homes and businesses in Linda and Olivehurst,” said Yuba Water Director of Water Resources and Flood Risk Reduction Ryan McNally. “I can’t think of a better way to leverage our partnership with CITRIS than to explore the best and latest technologies to further reduce the likelihood of an event of that magnitude from happening again.”

Yuba Water Agency will commit up to $360,000 over two years for the project, which will deploy advanced sensing technologies at eight levee sites to investigate more efficient monitoring methods. The research’s goal is to enhance monitoring capabilities and, in the long term, predict and manage the life expectancy of this critical infrastructure, further reducing the risk of catastrophic flooding in Yuba County.

Last year, Yuba Water, the city of Wheatland and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute signed a memorandum of understanding to outline plans for mutually beneficial research that will connect technological solutions to local and regional issues, build more resilient communities and protect Yuba County’s natural resources. Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute is a University of California research center focused on creating information technology solutions that generate societal and economic benefits for everyone.