Connect at the 2021 Structural Engineering Summit
NYC: October 12–15 & Virtually: September 27–October 21
In today’s world, you need dynamic solutions that can adapt to their environment. The 2021 Structural Engineering Summit is a solution designed for you. This year's event is an immersive in-person & virtual event perfect for reconnecting with other structural engineering professionals. Join us in-person in New York City at the Hilton Midtown on October 12-15, or virtually from September 27 to October 21. Attendees of both events will have access to engaging educational sessions led by experts in the field, riveting networking opportunities, and access to our industry leading Trade Show.
We understand that things are changing and evolving on a daily basis. To ease any worries, not only is Summit registration worry-free guaranteed until 9/28/21, but if attendees purchase a Virtual registration now, they will have the opportunity to upgrade to All Access later (locking in the current rate). NCSEA is committed to the Summit being a safe and healthy event. We are monitoring how Covid is impacting New York and the host hotel. Click here for the latest information.
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Don't Forget to Reserve Your Room
The host hotel for the Summit, the Hilton Midtown, is located in the heart of midtown Manhattan just a short distance from Central Park, Radio City Music Hall, the MoMA and just a few blocks away from Times Square. Reservations can be made at the Hilton Midtown with NCSEA's guest rate until September 28, 2021. Click here to reserve your room.
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Welcome to this installment of Read.Watch.Listen: a monthly forum hosted by the NCSEA SE3 Committee to share and promote conversations on diversity, equity and inclusion within the structural engineering profession. Each month, we will curate a series of articles, audio-visual and digital media to facilitate self-education in matters that affect our professional practice as structural engineers. Whether you choose to read, watch, or listen (or all three!), we hope you will join us in this important conversation.
This month our focus is on Employee Resource Groups (ERG) and other internal equity groups - what they are, how to start one, and how to make them effective. Employee resource groups are employee-led groups formed with the goal of creating an equitable, inclusive workplace. They typically comprise employees who share a common gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Below, you will find resources with suggestions and tips for leaders and entry-level engineers alike. You will also learn how to make a case for the creation and/or continued support of Employee Resource Groups while learning what pitfalls to avoid to create the best environment for you and your colleagues.
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READ
Sonja Gittens-Ottley of Asana discusses the benefits and structure of Employee Resources groups. In this article, she covers how to set goals for your group, how to establish membership, how to measure success, and how to avoid common risks and pitfalls.
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WATCH
Gary Ross, the Senior Inclusion and Diversity Specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, has led Employee Resource Groups at two different organizations. In this webinar, he shares his advice on maintaining an ERG, including how to encourage engagement and how to justify participation to firm leadership.
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LISTEN
This podcast discusses the benefits of Employee Resource Groups. Using HubSpot’s ERGs as an example, the host explains how to start a group using a few key steps. Learn how to coordinate with HR, define your mission and goals, find allies, gain leadership buy-in, work with what you’ve got, create structure, and evolve with a changing workplace.
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2021 PEER Center Blind Prediction Contest
The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center invites anyone in the structural engineering field to participate in the prediction of the response of a reinforced concrete column subjected to lateral deformation. This invitation is based on an experimental test of a concrete column conducted in 2020, the results of which have not yet been published. The test column is representative of gravity columns common in concrete buildings designed prior to the 1990s.
Participation requires predicting only a few quantities (strength, stiffness, deformation capacity, and behavior mode) for one cyclic-static test. Entrants can use hand or spreadsheet calculations from approaches defined in building codes, guidelines, or published research, perhaps spending just a few hours to make their predictions.
The responses of each participant will be compared to the test results, and the participants from each category with the best prediction will be announced in the writeup of the results.
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This podcast from the Engineering Management Institute features NCSEA Past President Emily Guglielmo, P.E., SE, discussing building safety in response to the Surfside building collapse in Miami as well as a structural engineer’s role post-collapse and how the collapse will affect building codes. Listen here.
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Other Events
Unordinary Tubular Connections
August 25, 2021
2021 SEAOT State Conference
September 23-24, 2021
September 22-25, 2021
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Deadline Approaching: Applications Due September 1
This year's recipients will receive free registration to the Summit which includes all educational sessions, access to the trade show, and an invitation to the NCSEA Awards Event, as well as a travel stipend of $1000 to use toward transportation and hotel costs.
This award recognizes YMGs that are providing a benefit to their members, member organization, and communities. Each finalist will receive complimentary registration to send a representative to the Structural Engineering Summit, and a $1,000 travel stipend. The winning Group will be announced at the Summit and will receive an additional $2,500 for their YMG's future activities.
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The NCSEA Resilience Committee seeks to provide a multidisciplinary collaboration platform to formulate recommendations and innovations to enhance resilience in the built environment. In an effort to further the Committee’s goal to educate the structural engineering community on resilience approaches to planning, design, and construction, the following resilience-focused content addresses strategies, practices, and ways of thinking to meet the challenges of designing in a multi-hazard environment. Acknowledging that resilience-thinking is cross-disciplinary, the content highlighted will be from many different perspectives and disciplines intentionally.
- In the white paper, “Disaster Resilience and Sustainability” written by the Disaster Resilience Working Group of the Structural Engineering Institute’s Sustainability Committee, the relationship between sustainability and disaster resilience is discussed. The intent of the paper is to raise awareness in the structural engineering community about the implicit connections between the two concepts. While this paper was published in 2015, the concepts discussed are particularly relevant in the lead up to COP26 in November 2021. The paper describes disaster resilience as a dynamic component of sustainability; the more robust the structure is in the face of a hazard, the more economically and environmentally sustainable the structure over its lifecycle.
- ThinkHazard! is a web-based tool to analyze the risks of natural hazards for all countries around the world at local, regional and country-scale. This tool includes simple user-friendly visualizations, data, and discussion about current and future threats of floods, wildfires, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, water scarcity, extreme heat, tsunamis and cyclones. In addition to hazard overviews, the tool provides recommendations and guidance for adaptation and safety, including for project design and planning. As structural engineers endeavor to educate owners about the importance and value of resilient construction, this tool may help in that effort.
- Catrisktools provides a catalog of open access and commercially licensed risk analysis tools. The catalog is maintained by the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) Risk Modelling Steering Group (RMSG) and hosted in partnership with the Oasis Hub Ltd. The IDF is comprised of members from the insurance, development, and scientific research sectors dedicated to improving global understanding and quantification of disaster risk. The intent of the working group is to support and enable decisions on its mitigation, adaptation and transfer.
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Structural engineers are key to the recovery of our communities affected by hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other disasters. The NCSEA SEER Committee advances NCSEA’s commitment to safe structures and resilient communities by promoting post-disaster recovery through building safety evaluations. The Committee supports this by facilitating the education and espousal of post-disaster building safety evaluators, and advocating for the expeditious, efficient, and effective engagement of post-disaster building safety evaluators.
This committee is chaired by Colby Baker, U.S. Forensic, and David Troxell, Caruso Turley Scott, Inc.
If the SEER Committee isn't the committee for you, NCSEA has a variety of committees that work to further the association’s mission to constantly improve the level of standard of practice of the structural engineering profession throughout the United States, and to provide an identifiable resource for those needing communication with the profession. Click here to learn about NCSEA's committees.
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Volunteers interested in joining the SEER Committee will need to:
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Upcoming Webinars
August 26, 2021
Jennifer Laning, P.E.
September 16, 2021
Jim DeStefano, P.E., AIA, F.SEI
September 30, 2021
Richard Bennett, PhD, P.E.
October 26, 2021
Lionel A. Lemay, P.E., S.E., and
Scott Campbell, PhD, P.E.
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- At least 30 high-quality, live webinars
- An unlimited number of free CE certificates
- 24/7/365 access to the Recorded Webinar Library
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