ASCE East Central Branch Newsletter

FEBRUARY 2021

Greetings!

Welcome one and all to the month of February. It’s time to celebrate Engineer’s week from February 21^st-27^th. At the Society level, ASCE partners with DiscoverE to shine a spotlight on engineering. Engineer’s Week is a time to not only celebrate how engineers make a difference in our world, but also increasing public dialogue about the need for engineers and bringing engineering to life for kids, educators, and parents.

This year to celebrate Engineer’s week, the East Central Branch is teaming up with Society of Women Engineers (SWE), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) to bring you some great events throughout the week. Please look forward to the event invite and hope to see everyone at these events. A big thank you to our Diversity chair Mike Olka for getting ECB involved in this collaborative effort.

In January, I attended the quarterly ASCE FL Section Board of Directors Quarterly meeting. I am pleased to report that, despite the pandemic, ECB has maintained its spot as the largest branch in the state of Florida. At the meeting, the section also sent out Section awards applications. I would like to request everyone to start suggesting nominations to our branch officers for each of the following categories.

Engineer of the Year Award
Young Engineer of the Year Award
Government Engineer of the Year Award
Project of the Year Award
Student of the Year Award
Student Outstanding Service Award
Graduate Student of the Year Award
Faculty Advisor of the Year

In keeping with the theme of bringing engineering to life for kids, the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair needs our help to virtually judge this year’s science fair, to be held at the end of March. Please visit this link to get more information and to register as a judge.

As we move ahead, we will have plenty of events to keep you involved with ECB and I look forward to meeting you virtually at one of them.

Stay safe everyone.

Sincerely,

Jignesh S. Vyas, P.E.

ASCE East Central Branch President

ANNUAL BRANCH AWARD NOMINATIONS

Know a fellow ECB’er that is consistently going above and beyond, or an impressive project everyone needs to know about? Great! Because ECB is currently accepting nominations for the annual branch awards as listed below.

Engineer of the Year Award
Young Engineer of the Year Award
Government Engineer of the Year Award
Project of the Year Award

All nominations need to be received by April 16th, 2021.

After April 16th, ECB’s official nominations will be selected, and the formal application process will be initiated with the selected nominees.

Submit Nominations Now

DRAFT E-WEEK SCHEDULE

MON, FEB 22 : Opening Events and Happy Hour

Hosted by: SWE, NSBE, SHPE, ASCE

Time: 6:30-8:00pm

Target Audience: Professional Engineers

Subject: Introductions and Networking

TUE, FEB 23 : Collegiate SWE Event

WED, FEB 24 : Dinner with an Engineer

Hosted by: SWE, ASCE

Time: 6:30-7:30pm

Speakers: Madeline Sinclair (SWE), Lockheed Martin Rep., Michael Olka (ASCE)

Target Audience: Students (Middle/High School)

Subject: Panel of Engineers will ask students questions

THUR, FEB 25 : Know Your Worth! Negotiating Salary and Benefits by Shelly Trent

Hosted by: SHRM-SCP, SPHR, CAE

Time: TDB

Target Audience: Professional Engineers

Subject: Career Coach, Your Career Collaborator. In this session, you will learn how to think strategically and to prepare a tactical plan for negotiating effective outcomes in a number of areas of your life, including your salary.

FRI, FEB 26 : Movie Night, "Dream Big: Engineering Our World"

Hosted by: SWE, NSBE, SHPE, ASCE

Time: 6:30-7:30

Target Audience: Families

Subject: Watch "Dream Big: Engineering Our World" together while also having a raffle for 3 $20 Icecream gift cards

SAT, FEB 27 : Events and Awards

Hosted by: Lockheed Martin Vice President and SWE, NSBE, SHPE, ASCE

Time: 6-7:30pm

Target Audience: Families

Subject: Awards will be given for the following three categories: (Please contact cflswevicepresident@swe.org for questions about this)

Technical Contribution Leader
Member of the Year
Engineer of the Year

Registration for the E-Week 2021 events will be through Eventbrite. A flyer with the information and registration link will be sent out via email once the ASCE/SHPE/SWE/NSBE E-Week committee finalize the flyer.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE

The Structural Engineering Institute turns 25 this year! SEI at the national level was established in 1996 to advance the careers of SEI members, stimulate technological advancement, and improve professional practice.

ASCE has opened the Bridges Photo Contest. They are accepting submissions until March 15, 2021.

More Information

Through the resources of ASCE SEI Collaborate, SEI ECB is able to share two lectures from other SEI chapters. From SEI Colorado, a presentation on Structural Fire Protection . From SEI Dallas-Fort Worth, a presentation on the Loop 375: Design Build Project.

The Time is Right for Structural Engineers to Embrace Structural Fire Protection - YouTube

Structural Engineering Institute - Loop 375: Design Build Project - YouTube

CALL FOR PROJECTS

The Structural Engineering Institute is seeking submissions from fellow structural engineers about their past or present projects. The submission is to quickly discuss the project's highlights, uniqueness, and/or challenges the structural engineer encountered during the project. This will provide ASCE-ECB members and aspiring student engineers with insight into the current structural engineering practices, and provide an opportunity for local or regional structural engineers to showcase their work. The submittals must include the following:

At least one photograph of the project location.
A summary of the project setting and background, such as location, new construction/restoration, private/government, etc.
A summary of the challenges and/or unique aspects of the project, such as new design technology or use of new construction material not typically used in similar designs.

The submittals shall be sent to Mike Olka (molka@lakecountyfl.gov) in which we will review and prepare for presentation in a future ECB newsletter.

CALL FOR OFFICER

SEI is looking for members who would like to serve as an Institute Officer beginning in September. Interested members should send a message to Michael Olka molka@lakecountyfl.gov.

YOUNGER MEMBER FORUM

ASCE YMF wants to know your feelings about upcoming events! Please fill out the survey using the following link. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help us plan events for this upcoming year!

Take the Survey Now

PE REVIEW

If you are taking the Civil PE Exam there is a review course that we would like to invite you to attend the twice weekly online ASCE YMF PE review. This course is designed to provide you with the knowledge you will need for the breadth portion of the exam at a fraction of the cost, $425, compared to other online reviews which can be well over $1,000.

The classes will cover construction, geotechnical, structural analysis, concrete and steel design, transportation, and water and environmental. If you only need a refresher on certain disciplines, feel free to sign up for just the single week! Additional depth review classes for both Transportation and Water and Environmental afternoon portions of the exam are available for an additional cost of $45 and $90 respectively.

Worried that the exam might get cancelled? Don't worry, we will refund the classes that you have not taken and give you a credit/discount based on the classes we refunded if you decided to retake the class on the upcoming PE Exam schedule!

Ten breadth review sessions designed to acquaint you with the fundamental knowledge, concepts, and equations you will need to pass the Civil PE Exam.

Topics Include:

Construction
Geotechnical
Structural Analysis
Concrete and Steel Design
Transportation
Water and Environmental

We held our first officer meeting for the spring semester on 1/14/21, since everyone is coming back from the long winter break. We would like to plan and organize details regarding the task that needed to be done to ensure a smooth transition to the spring semester.

As the spring semester has begun, we hosted our first GBM with Kate from CDM Smith to give us a very informative session about the company itself and their vision about their goal and future.

We also hosted another AutoCAD workshop for those people who didn’t make it last semester and for those people that would like to learn about some tips and shortcuts to speed up the CAD drawing process. Last semester we had a great turnout for the Among us Game Night so we plan on continue doing it this semester and it’s as a way of getting new members to know each other better and potentially get them involve more with the club and hopefully become an officer of the one day!

Sincerely,

Khanh Olka, E.I.T.

Communications Chair

East Central Branch

Florida Section

asce-ecb@outlook.com