As a Brownwood native, Joseph Burcham didn’t have to travel far for a college education at Howard Payne University. However, his road to graduation as an engineering science major led to an innovative way to light rural interstate highways.

“My project is a system-based design harvesting mechanical electrical power from roadways,” Burcham said. “It’s an embedded system, designed to go inside roadways. As cars drive down the streets, they’ll rotate the system and create a current that will charge a battery pack. At night, when the photo sensor goes off, it’ll illuminate the streetlights.”

Burcham, who graduated from HPU in May, collaborated on the project with Dr. Martin Mintchev, professor of engineering and chair of HPU’s Division of Engineering.

“Dr. Mintchev was pitching ideas to me, and that one really stood out,” Burcham said. “I started working on it about a year and a half ago. I was really interested in small electrical stuff.”

Burcham enjoyed the project’s extensive development process.

“We went through Google patents, searching all the databases to make sure there wasn’t a patent out there for it,” he said. “Then we made a miniature model, or prototype, to make sure it’s actually feasible, and then we made it bigger and made it look nice.”

Dr. Jill Heupel, associate vice president for academic affairs, expressed her appreciation for Dr. Mintchev’s leadership in structuring the Division of Engineering’s coursework for maximum benefit to students.

“Dr. Mintchev has done an amazing job at designing the engineering programs at HPU to include experiential learning projects which results in higher levels of interest and motivation by the learner,” Dr. Heupel said. “These projects require the student to research a topic in depth and then create a functional prototype of the full engineering system. Students are also learning real world processes of patent application to protect their inventions.”

As a recent graduate, Burcham looks back on his HPU years with appreciation for the experiences that were made available to him.

“When I graduated from high school, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” he remembered. “I knew I was really good at math and science. I looked at the list of degrees at HPU and thought, ‘Engineering sounds interesting.’ I tried it and really enjoy it a lot. I like the mechanical, hands-on aspect of it.”

He also sees HPU’s size and close-knit campus community as great advantages.

“I like the small class sizes,” he added. “Staff and faculty are friendly. They’ll have conversations with you, and I really enjoy that.”

Applications are being accepted for admission to HPU for the fall 2024 semester. For more information about the university, visit www.hputx.edu.