ASCE Region 8 Newsletter

ASCE Region 8 | May 2019

"advance the Civil Engineering profession by serving the members of Region 8

as an extension of Board of Direction"

Region 8 Director's Column

Aloha and mahalo for your membership in ASCE. Don’t forget that your membership now includes 10 free PDHs.

The ASCE Society-level elections have started. The elections will be open until Monday, June 3, 5:00 pm CDT. Please continue the tradition of Region 8 having the highest rate of member voting in the Society. Your vote is especially important this year for our next Society President-Elect and our next two Region 8 Governors because those are both contested elections. The two candidates for Society President-Elect are Jean-Louis Briaud, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Dist. M.ASCE and Dennis Truax, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE, F.NSPE, F.ASCE. The three candidates for two Region 8 Governor positions are Dan Karlin – Montana Section, Mark Lamer – Arizona Section, and Matt Roblez – Utah Section. Please take some time to read about each candidate at https://www.asce.org/Elections/ . Your vote counts!

The student regional conferences took place in April. Region 8 schools participated in four separate student conferences across the western US. The Pacific Northwest Conference was hosted by St. Martins University, Lacey, WA. The Pacific Southwest Conference was hosted by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The Mid-Pacific Conference was hosted by San Jose State University. The Rocky Mountain Conference was hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder. Thanks to all the schools that hosted and to the students that participated. Thanks to Governors Kate Thompson, Darren Hippenstiel, Florence Ching and Fred Nelson for representing Region 8 and volunteering at the four student conferences.

Did you know that ASCE Region 8 includes most of western Canada? Well, the ASCE Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute has formed an Alberta-British Columbia Chapter for members that are interested in that area. Please let me know you need more information. Also, (for our Canadian members) if you want to know more about potential future general membership meetings in your part of Canada, please send me a message. If there is enough interest, the Region 8 leadership would happily support the formation of a Section in your area.

Younger Members out there: I have been tasked with chairing a 10-member task committee to generate ideas on how we can get more Younger Member engagement at the Society Board of Direction level, so that Younger Member opinions can be directly heard. If you have any ideas that you want to share, please contact me.

Mahalo for being a member of ASCE and for all that you do to help our great profession. #Region8isgreat!!!

Mahalo and Aloha,

Tony C.G. Lau, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE

Society Director, Region 8

Email: tlau_1987@hawaiiantel.net

Recent Region 8 Award Winners

Region 8 has once again reaped a rich harvest of ASCE awards during the most recent awards cycle. Congratulations to all of our award winners!

Don Nguyen, P.E., M.ASCE of the Seattle Section was selected for the 2019 Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement for “professional achievement in service to the advancement of the profession, evidence of technical competence, high character and integrity, and contributions to public service outside their careers.”
Noe Santos, P.E., M.ASCE of the Nevada Section was selected for the 2019 Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement for “professional achievement in service to the advancement of the profession, evidence of technical competence, high character and integrity, and contributions to public service outside their careers.”
Noe Santos, P.E., M.ASCE of the Nevada Section was also selected to receive a Certificate of Commendation for the 2019 Daniel W. Mead Prize for Younger Members for his paper, “Diversity and Inclusion: The Foundation for the Profession’s Bridge to the Future.”
The Hawaii Section Younger Member Forum has been selected to receive the 2019 Younger Member Group Award for Small Groups for “outstanding professional, technical, social, outreach, and community service activities on behalf of the Hawaii Section.”
Carla R. Palma, A.M. ASCE of the Nevada Section was selected for the 2019 Young Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award for “demonstrated leadership and significant contributions to public service engineering.”
The Utah Section Younger Member Forum was selected to receive the Committee on Younger Members’ Outstanding Younger Member Group Digital Outreach Award for Small Groups (formerly the Younger Member Group Website of the Year Award). The award recognizes Younger Member Groups that host a website and utilize social media to share information and engage with their members.
Dr. Erica C. Fischer, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE from Oregon Section has been selected by the Committee on Younger Members to receive the 2019 Collingwood Prize for the paper “Experimental Evaluation of Single-Bolted Lap Joints at Elevated Temperatures,” Journal of Structural Engineering, January 2018

Oregon Section Rolls Out

Infrastructure Report Card

On Wednesday, May 15 ^th , the Oregon Section rolled out their 2019 edition of the Oregon Infrastructure Report Card at the State Capitol in Salem, OR. The previous Oregon report card was issued in 2010, so this one was much anticipated. The report card preparation effort spanned nearly 8 months and was chaired by Mark Libby of the Oregon Section. Some 28 Oregon Section members donated hundreds of hours of their time to the effort. The report card rated the status of Oregon’s infrastructure in ten categories: Bridges, Dams, Drinking Water, Energy, Inland Waterways, Levees, Ports, Rail, Roads, and Wastewater.

The categories were each rated on eight separate criteria: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience, and innovation. Grades for each category ranged from D to C+, and the overall composite “GPA” for Oregon was a C-.

Former ASCE National President, and Oregon Section member Greg Diloreto served as Master-of-Ceremonies for the report card rollout event. Mark Libby provided a brief summary of what the grades were for each of the categories covered and presented recommendations for improving the grades.

Introducing the 2019 Oregon Infrastructure Report Card: (l to r) Randy Tucker, President of the Board, Oregon Transportation Forum, Matt Garrett, Director, ODOT, Mark Libby, Oregon Section ASCE Report Card Chair, Greg Diloreto, Oregon Section ASCE, and ASCE national Infrastructure Committee chair, Jennifer Belknap Williamson, Director of Engineering, Port of Portland

Greg Diloreto stressed that the purpose of the infrastructure report card is not to denigrate the efforts of all those who work hard to maintain and improve the state’s infrastructure, but to help all Oregonians understand the state of the state’s infrastructure. ODOT Director Matt Garrett thanked the Oregon Section for creating this useful tool for policymakers to help them to prioritize where to apply the state’s resources. He also noted that the passage of HB2017 by the Legislature 2 years ago, which allocated over $5 billion for transportation system improvements, will enable his agency to start to deliver those transportation improvement projects over the next few years. He also acknowledged that “much more still needs to be done”.

Oregon’s 2019 Infrastructure Report card

TV and print media coverage at the Infrastructure Report Card Rollout event was coordinated by Anna Denecke of ASCE’s Legislative Affairs office in Washington, D.D.

Some of the Oregon Section members who traveled to Salem Salem for the Oregon Infrastructure Report Card roll out.

Honolulu WRYMC Meeting a Big Success

On March 8-9, 2019, 147 younger members, 135 students, and 70 section, branch, and institute leaders gathered at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, Hawaii to attend the Regions 8 and 9 ASCE Multi-Regional Leadership Conference (MRLC).

Many arrived early and attended one or more of the preconference socials. On March 7th, one group of younger members headed to Lanikai for a hike followed by a picnic on the beach, while another group visited a lo‘i to get hands-on experience in a taro farm. In the evening, many MRLC attendees and guests met up to attend a luau and to connect with each other at the networking social. It was a very busy day, and that was only the preconference!

The next two days were jam-packed with informative and fun sessions, including a Region 8 breakout session and a fun exercise on collaboration in the student-younger member session. One other session that we received a lot of positive feedback on was the breakfast presentation on “Developing a Culture of Aloha in the Way We Work” by Kaala Souza. On Saturday, the younger members also had their annual business meeting and attended technical tours.

Finally, the WRYMC awards banquet was held on Saturday night to bring an end to an amazing conference and to honor outstanding individuals and younger member groups. Congratulations to all the award recipients!

Outstanding Younger Member in the Public Sector: Marcelino Ascensio of the Los Angeles Younger Member Forum
Outstanding Younger Member in the Private Sector: Anabel Hernandez of the Las Vegas Younger Member Forum
Outstanding Younger Member Group Project: “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” by the Hawaii Section Younger Member Forum
Outstanding Younger Member in Community Activities: Ashlyn Alexander of the Orange County Younger Member Forum
Outstanding Support of a Student Chapter: Los Angeles Younger Member Forum
Outstanding Younger Member in ASCE Activities: Don Nguyen of the Seattle Younger Member Forum

2019 Rocky Mountain Student Conference University of Colorado, Boulder, April 4-6, 2019

Approximately 400 students and 15 faculty members attended the Rocky Mountain Student Conference hosted by University of Colorado at Boulder in Boulder, Co.

The event began with student registration and an evening meal in the Omni-Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield, CO. At the meal, students heard a brief speech/power point from Fred Nelson, P.E. Region 8 Governor, who spoke about ASCE’s History, Governance, activities and benefits to the student members, with emphasis on staying with ASCE after graduation. In addition, the attendees were supported by various sponsors, including Vulcraft, Kiewit and local engineering firms.

Fifteen schools were represented from three ASCE Regions as follows:

Region 6:

University of New Mexico (Albuquerque)

New Mexico State University (Las Cruces)

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro)

Region 7:

University of Wyoming (Laramie)

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (Rapid City)

University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Colorado at Denver

Colorado School of Mines (Golden)

Colorado State University (Ft. Collins)

Colorado State University at Pueblo (Sent students as observers to Steel Bridge Competition)

United States Air Force Academy (Only participated in Steel Bridge Competition)

Region 8:

Brigham Young University (Provo, UT)

University of Utah (Logan)

Utah State University (Logan)

Utah Valley University (Orem…first year with a Civil Engineering Department)

The competition took place at the University of Colorado Recreation Center and the Boulder Reservoir. It was spirited/excellent in the various activities, which included: Concrete Canoe; Steel Bridge (a separate AISC completion); Mystery Competition (an initial competition where nine teams, each with team members from four schools competed against each other making wood bridges with a 2x4, popsicle sticks, string and tape); Technical Paper presentation and Non-Technical Paper presentation, coffer dam construction, blanket tent competition, where the blankets were given to local charities, surveying, “Blue Sky” to fill the steel bridge (Governor Nelson was a judge whose rating of the four schools was the same at the other local judge), and the concrete canoe races.

All events were highly competitive with good sportsmanship on display. The local newspaper sent a photo journalist who wrote an article, “Building Engineers ‘get their geek on’, and Denver’s Channel 7 was there with a photographer. Jay Garris of Chi Epsilon was present and, as a professional photographer, took numerous outstanding photos of the activities. Also present was Mike Pniewski, of Toledo, OH, who is on the Student Members Committee.

A general business meeting was held on April 6, led by the conference host, where the rules and language were updated and the sites of several future competitions were discussed.

The Region 8 Schools performed very well. The University of Utah built its first concrete canoe in 10 years. Utah State University finished a strong second in the Steel Bridge competition and performed well in the concrete canoe races. And the first year school, Utah Valley University was present with its faculty advisor and its men’s canoe slalom team finished first, to the cheers of its students, and also BYU’s students. As always, BYU was involved in all events, winning many of them and finishing first overall in the competition. Overall, the host school (University of Colorado) did an excellent job organizing/managing the event and the participant schools represented the best of ASCE student chapters.