JOIN US FOR THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING SUMMIT
February 14–17, 2022 (In-Person in NYC)
January 31–February 24, 2022 (Virtual)
Gather with your peers and leaders in the field; recharge your creative juices and get the best in structural engineering education. Whether in-person in New York City or on our virtual platform, don’t miss the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and industry suppliers and make new and important contacts for your career. You deserve it!
For this year's Summit, the Virtual Summit will be FREE from January 31–February 13. This includes 30-minute Exhibitor Zone sessions delivered by industry-leading exhibitors. Visit the website to learn more.

Thank you to all of our sponsors and exhibitors for supporting the NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit. View the full list of sponsors and exhibitors.
WEBINAR SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAM

Now is the time to purchase an annual NCSEA Webinar Subscription. Gain access to:
  • At least 25 high-quality, live webinars
  • A recorded library of more than 170 past webinars, available 24/7/365
  • An unlimited number of free continuing education certificates
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2021 YOUNG MEMBER SUMMIT SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

Each year NCSEA awards Young Member Scholarships for the NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit. First-time scholarship recipients receive free registration to the Summit. Previous recipients are awarded a returning scholarship that covers the cost of registration. Learn about this year's recipients on the NCSEA website.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2021 YOUNG MEMBER
GROUP OF THE YEAR FINALISTS

This award recognizes Young Member Groups that benefit their young members, member organization, and communities. Finalists receive complimentary registration to send a representative to the Structural Engineering Summit as well as a travel stipend. The winning group will be announced at the Summit. Learn more about this year's finalists on the NCSEA website.

The 2021 Young Member Scholarships and Young Member Group of the Year Award are generously sponsored by Computers & Structures, Inc.
Welcome to the next 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, we are focusing on the recently passed federal Infrastructure Bill. As structural engineers, this bill stands to have a substantial impact on our companies, clients, and personal careers in the coming years; as people living in the United States, this will shape our environment and those of our fellow citizens. The resources below highlight how this bill can be used to advance racial equity in the U.S. while addressing some of the challenges to equity faced by the bill.

Missed the previous issue? Check out the NCSEA SE3 Committee News and Publication page. Share your thoughts and/or recommended resources for the next issue at [email protected].
READ
WATCH
LISTEN
This article dives into seven specific obstacles the infrastructure bill faces with regards to racial equity, and how each of these challenges might be addressed as funds are allocated over the next five years.
Michael Laris, transportation reporter for the Washington Post, outlines how the infrastructure bill approaches equity. Laris highlights some of the original plans of the bill and how they evolved throughout the negotiation process. 
UpZoned host and urban planner Abby Kinney dissects the recent infrastructure bill using an equity lens. Along with her guest, John Reuter, she breaks down some of the details of the bill and how they may help or hinder progress toward racial equity in the U.S. You can find the New York Times article referenced in the podcast here.
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.

Want to learn about the past earthquakes? Past earthquakes have changed our thinking, led to building code changes that result in safer building codes, and the incorporation of certain provisions at present. These changes were not only made to buildings but also to hydroelectric, transportation, and wastewater systems—making them safer and more reliable during these life-threatening events. Learn about the San Fernando earthquake of 1971 and lessons learned to make critical infrastructure safer, more resilient, and what it could mean for the future on the 50th anniversary of this tragic event. The ASCE Resilience division, in partnership with UCLA, is sponsoring the “San Fernando Earthquake Conference – 50 years of Lifeline Engineering (Lifelines2021-2022)”.

Our healthcare system is currently being tested to its limit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, we have learned some valuable lessons to better respond to this and future infectious diseases. Adopting adaptive and flexible design principles can accommodate capacity surges. For example, amenities, such as pop-up testing and screening, give hospitals the versatility to maximize capacity and reap economic benefit from throughput. Conscientious design for patient flow of infectious patients to reroute supply elevators in lieu of trauma elevators reduces inadvertent exposure to other potentially vulnerable patients. Using technology and a hands-free approach for the admission of patients, lighting, plumbing fixtures, hand sanitation station, and doors have been prevalent and useful during COVID-19. Follow the link to learn more about various design considerations for making our hospitals more resilient in these ever-changing times.

We often understand resilience as being synonymous with being resilient against short-duration natural disasters like tornados, earthquakes, fires, and more. It's harder to understand that resilience also means preparing our communities to strategize for long-term events like climate change. Discussion about climate change also intertwines with subjects of social justice, public health, and economics. Huge cities like Los Angeles are especially vulnerable to climate change as projections forecast increased risk for droughts and flooding associated with sea-level rise in the region over the next 75-years. This report discusses and highlights the need for affordable housing options in LA and surrounding areas to combat the hurdles caused by climate change as vulnerable people have even less flexibility to prepare for an uncertain future.  
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