September 2009
Volume 34, Number 9

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

KATHY J. CALDWELL, P.E., M.ASCE, is the Society’s incoming president-elect, having defeated Moustafa A. Gouda, P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE. Caldwell is only the second woman in ASCE’s history to become president-elect. (The first was Patricia D. Galloway, Ph.D., P.E., Pres.04.ASCE, who was elected in 2003.) Region directors, the Technical Region director, an at-large director, and various region governors, along with the vice president of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), also were elected by the Society’s members. The new officers will begin their terms at the business meeting that will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, in late October as part of ASCE’s annual conference.

An adjunct professor at the University of Florida as well as the president of Caldwell Cook & Associates, of Gainesville, Florida, Caldwell earned a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1985. She was a member of the Board of Direction from 2005 to 2008 and served on the Executive Committee in 2008. She has also chaired the Society’s Strategic Planning Committee, served on and chaired Region 5’s Board of Governors, and held many leadership positions within the Florida Section.

In her vision statement, Caldwell stated that “the time has come to start our engines and MOVE forward” (the acronym denoting “member-driven and member-focused,” “opportunity,” “vision,” and “excitement”). Her vision of moving forward has four aspects: addressing the challenges of the present; spanning gaps by building bridges to ASCE’s membership; embarking on the path to the future; and reengineering the Society’s annual conference. “ASCE is like a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle,” she stated, comparing members, staff, and many organizational entities to the pieces of the puzzle and comparing The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html) to the completed picture. “I have the personal and professional diversity of experience to put the pieces together,” she stated.

Caldwell is active in many volunteer organizations. She is a member of Engineers Without Borders–USA, the Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers’ transportation committee, the Florida Engineering Society, Chi Epsilon, and Tau Beta Pi.

Eriks V. Ludins, P.E., M.ASCE, has been elected the director of Region 3. An assistant transportation engineer with the public works department in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a registered professional engineer in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Ludins earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota. His ASCE involvement includes serving as the governor of Region 3, the president of the Minnesota Section, and a member of committees dealing with technical activities and codes and standards. Other outside activities include volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and serving as a capstone project adviser to civil engineering students at the University of Minnesota.

Sandra N. Knight, P.E., F.ASCE, has been elected the director of Region 4. Knight earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and is currently a county engineer in Bradley County, Tennessee. She has also been a construction and project manager for the Florida Department of Transportation. Within ASCE she has served on the Committee on Professional Practice, the Committee on Career Development, the Policy Review Committee, and the Engineering Practice Policy Committee. She has also served as the governor of Region 4, the secretary of Region 4, and the president of the Tennessee Section. Outside the Society she has held numerous leadership positions with the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers and the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Kancheepuram N. Gunalan, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, has been elected the director of Region 8. Gunalan earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Madras, in India, a master’s degree in engineering from Anna University, also in India, and a doctorate in civil engineering from Texas Tech University. He is a vice president of Parsons Brinckerhoff, of New York City, and manages several projects through its subsidiary PB Americas, Inc. Gunalan has held many ASCE leadership positions, serving as the governor of Region 8, the president of the Utah Section, and the chair of a Geo-Institute task force on mechanically stabilized earth walls. He currently serves on ASCE’s Committee on Global Principles for Professional Conduct and is a member of the Geo-Institute’s Technical Committee on Embankments, Dams, and Slopes.

Robert D. Stevens, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, has been elected ASCE’s Technical Region director. Stevens earned bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and mathematics from the University of Akron, a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in transportation from the University of Michigan. He is the executive vice president of ARCADIS, a firm headquartered in Arnhem, the Netherlands. His ASCE involvement includes serving as the president of the Transportation and Development Institute and as a member of several of that institute’s committees. Stevens has served on many national ASCE committees, including the Task Committee on Branding, the Engineering Practice Policy Committee, and the Committee on Professional Practice. He also serves on the editorial boards of several ASCE journals.

Kevin C. Womack, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the director of Utah State University’s Utah Transportation Center, has been elected an at-large director. Womack earned a bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University, a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate from Oregon State University. He served as the chair of ASCE’s Transportation Policy Committee from 2005 to 2008 and helped formulate ASCE’s policy on the bill to replace the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). His article “Infrastructure Renewal: The Need for Political Leadership” appeared in ASCE’s Leadership and Management in Engineering in October 2008.

The winners in the races for the various region governor positions are as follows: In Region 1, William J. Cunningham, P.E., M.ASCE, and George Moglia, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE; in Region 2, Donald W. Vannoy, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE; in Region 3, Darrell J. Berry, P.E., S.E., F.ASCE; in Region 4, J.P. Mohsen, Ph.D., M.ASCE, and Aaron K. Robinson, P.S., P.E., M.ASCE; in Region 5, Fraser S. Howe, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE; in Region 6, Craig M. Newtson, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, and Walter T. Winn, Jr., P.E., BCEE, F.ASCE; in Region 7, F. Jay Burress, P.E., M.ASCE, and Loras A. Klostermann, P.E., M.ASCE; in Region 8, Michael E. Mathieu, P.E., F.ASCE, and Raymond Walton, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, M.ASCE; in Region 9, Kathleen S. Haynes, P.E., M.ASCE; and in Region 10, Himansu Banerjee, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, and Ronald Hine, M.ASCE.

Daniel L. Thomas, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, was elected the vice president of the EWRI. A professor at Louisiana State University, Thomas heads the school’s biological and agricultural engineering department and its agricultural center in Baton Rouge. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural engineering from Louisiana State University and a doctorate in agricultural engineering from Purdue University. A registered professional engineer in Georgia, he serves on ASCE’s Publications Committee and on a task committee for the magazine Civil Engineering. In addition to lending his time and expertise to an ASCE task committee formed to summarize the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, he has served on and chaired numerous EWRI committees and has been a member of that institute’s Governing Board.

(click image for larger view)

ISSUES & ADVOCACY

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) held its annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, August 12–15, and at that gathering the council’s members passed several motions that support ASCE’s continuing effort to “raise the bar” with respect to engineering education and licensure. Modifications to the wording of the NCEES model rules were incorporated that define the courses beyond a bachelor’s that will be required for professional licensure beginning no earlier than 2020. The council rejected attempts to remove references to education beyond the bachelor’s degree as a requirement for licensure. It also voted to begin a study of the details that will come into play in implementing the master’s degree or equivalent education requirement for licensure beginning in 2020.

The model rules developed by the NCEES include three paths for those seeking professional licensing: individuals may earn a bachelor’s degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program and a master’s degree in engineering; they may earn a bachelor’s degree from any program and a master’s degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program; or they may earn a bachelor’s degree from an ABET-accredited program and then complete an “acceptable amount of coursework.”

According to the model rules, an “acceptable amount of coursework” is defined as 30 additional credits, none of which may have been used in completing work for the bachelor’s degree. The credits must be “equivalent in intellectual rigor and learning assessments to upper-level undergraduate and/or graduate courses offered at institutions that have a program accredited by [the Engineering Accreditation Commission of] ABET,” the rules state. The rules also state that at least 15 of the 30 additional credits must be earned in courses in engineering and that the remainder must be earned in fields related to engineering, for example, mathematics and science, or in fields related to engineering practice, for example, business, communications, contract law, management, ethics, public policy, and quality control.

During the annual meeting several NCEES licensing boards that were opposed to requiring education beyond the bachelor’s degree moved to omit all language in the model law related to engineering education beyond the bachelor’s degree. The motion was voted down by a wide margin. Another resolution, however, which passed by a wide margin, stated that the NCEES Engineering Education Task Force should study “alternative solutions to the concept of additional education” that include investigating “reform to the bachelor’s degree program such that a bachelor’s degree be modified to contain the appropriate educational requirements to practice at a professional level.”

The chair of the NCEES Engineering Education Task Force, Michael J. Conzett, P.E., moved that NCEES further develop a “national clearinghouse” that would be responsible for validating the 30 additional credit hours. It is believed that the completion of this work will create a detailed process for validating education beyond the bachelor’s degree.
“There was a significant sea change that was apparent,” says Craig Musselman, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, the Society’s liaison to the NCEES’s Board of Directors. “Despite heightened pressure from other engineering disciplines to derail the engineering education initiative, NCEES and its member P.E. boards decided by a wide margin to stay the course while continuing to carefully develop details and evaluate educational alternatives,” he says.

ASCE has been in favor of engineering education beyond the bachelor’s degree since its Board of Direction adopted Policy 465 (“Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice”) in 1998. As a result of that policy, the first edition of ASCE’s Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century was released in 2004, the second edition following in 2008 (www.asce.org/raisethebar). That work states that, together with Policy 465, the goal is to “reform the education and prelicensure experience of tomorrow’s civil engineers.” The body of knowledge describes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to enter the professional practice of civil engineering in the future. (See “ASCE Releases New Edition of Body of Knowledge Report,” ASCE News, March 2008, pages 1, 3–4, 8–10).

Eventually, assuming NCEES will continue to stay the course, this effort will move from a national issue with respect to the model law to state by state consideration,” Musselman says. ASCE through its Committee on the Academic Prerequisites for Professional Practice will continue to pursue various activities in this area, including presentations to students and practitioners and to other stakeholders around the country. ASCE, along with representatives of other professional societies with an interest in engineering licensure, will continue to be a resource for the NCEES Engineering Education Task Force and will provide input with respect to the engineering education alternatives.

ASCE was represented at the NCEES’s annual meeting by Blaine Leonard, P.E., M.ASCE, the Society’s president-elect; Musselman; Jeffrey Russell, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE; Ken Fridley, Ph.D., F.ASCE; and Tom Lenox, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a senior managing director with ASCE. Many other ASCE members also were present as representatives of their state licensing boards. 

—BRETT HANSEN

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY

IN AN EFFORT TO DETERMINE HOW BEST to protect the intrinsic value the Society projects to its members and the public, ASCE has spent nearly two years examining how the Society is perceived by its members and others. It has asked such questions as the following: What does ASCE mean to you? When you think about your connection to the Society, what comes to mind? What are your highest aspirations for our profession and the organization that serves it? As a result of this study, ASCE’s Board of Direction has adopted a new strategy, along with a new logo, for establishing the Society’s corporate identity.

The Society retained McKinley Marketing, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., to conduct extensive research to determine the fundamental characteristics that are associated with ASCE. The research included focus groups, a comprehensive brand assessment survey, and collaborative exercises with participants that included members of ASCE, the public, and the media. The research also included a review of the brands of notable for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

On the basis of these research data, the board and the consulting firm determined that ASCE’s brand is best represented by six key attributes, which may be conveyed by the following statements:

• ASCE as a professional group is a trusted source of knowledge, information, advocacy, and networking.
• ASCE is a leader of the civil engineering profession; it advances the profession by consistently acting to promote the highest standards in order to safeguard society.
• ASCE’s technical resources—including its publications, periodicals, and educational and training programs—are highly regarded and are perceived as being produced by experts in their fields.
• ASCE’s history, strong sense of purpose, and responsible stewardship qualify it as an enduring organization that will wisely use its resources to consistently meet the expectations of future generations of members.

These attributes will serve as a compass that will guide the Society in its present and future efforts.

In addition to articulating the Society’s key attributes, the research participants stated that ASCE should do more to represent civil engineering as a contemporary, innovative, and dynamic profession. As part of this process ASCE has updated its visual identity by refreshing its logo, corporate materials, and overall appearance.

The research participants also named four core areas, or “subbrands,” that they use to sift through ASCE’s information and resources. These core areas, which form the major pillars of ASCE’s work, are knowledge and learning, leadership and management, membership and community, and issues and advocacy. To give these areas a more distinct profile, color coding and icons will be used, as seen in this issue of ASCE News. The graphic design of the newspaper also has been refreshed, the intent being to make the front page more reader friendly and to portray civil engineering as an innovative and dynamic profession that has a significant role to play in addressing some of society’s most pressing problems. The colored icons will also be used in other ASCE materials and resources. Other changes reflecting the new brand will be implemented during the next year. (See page 3 for a detailed description of the core areas and how they relate to ASCE’s materials and resources.) To provide feedback on the graphic improvements to ASCE News, e-mail ascenews@asce.org.

The members of the Task Committee on Branding, which helped guide this initiative, are Harold Farchmin, P.E., F.ASCE, the chair; Kelly Brennan, P.E., M.ASCE; Deepal Eliatamby, P.E., F.ASCE; Kimberly Hughes, P.E., M.ASCE; Jon Magnusson, P.E., S.E., Dist.M.ASCE; Thomas Rachford, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE; Robert Stevens, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE; Joseph Syrnick, P.E., M.ASCE; and Robert Victor, P.E., M.ASCE.

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

DURING the July meeting of the Society’s Board of Direction, the ASCE Post-Disaster Assessment Manual, a work developed by our Task Committee on Engineering Review Procedures (TCERP), was adopted, bringing to a close an important chapter in ASCE’s involvement in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In the search for answers after a community is devastated by a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, misinformation can run rampant, and reactions are often based on emotions rather than facts. It is for exactly those reasons that ASCE stepped forward when asked to review the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ hurricane protection system performance evaluation. As engineers charged by our Code of Ethics to protect public safety and advance the practice of engineering, we knew there was much to be learned from the tragedy. We also knew that public trust and understanding of the study’s results would be vital to a successful recovery of the region.

The External Review Panel (ERP), whose members included some of the country’s foremost experts, devoted thousands of hours of their time to the three-year study and performed an incredible service to the people of New Orleans and the civil engineering profession. Their final report remains the definitive explanation of what went wrong and why.

To best serve the public interest, the work of these dedicated volunteers needed to be conducted in an open, public manner. In this way their opinions were subjected to criticism from those who disagreed or had other agendas. Some of those criticisms were widely disseminated, both in the New Orleans area and within ASCE.

Leaders of the Society properly chose to refrain from a public defense and instead called for a full review of the critics’ charges. David G. Mongan P.E., F.ASCE, at the time the Society’s president, appointed an independent task force chaired by Sherwood Boehlert, a former congressman from New York, that was asked to advise ASCE on ways to improve its disaster review process. The TCERP was then charged with devising a plan for implementing the recommendations from Boeh-lert’s group. That effort is now embodied in the new manual.

ASCE simultaneously initiated a review by the Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) of all charges of improper conduct leveled during the ERP’s work. After more than a year of investigation that involved numerous interviews and a review of thousands of pages of documents, the CPC’s findings exonerated all of those named in the allegations.

I am proud of the professionalism and ethical standards ASCE adopted when confronted with these charges, and I believe the outcome of both reviews should confirm to our members and the public that the Society was and is an organization that can and should be trusted with safeguarding the nation’s infrastructure.

We have now entered another chapter in our relationship with the disaster recovery efforts. In May Louisiana’s senior U.S. senator, Mary Landrieu (D), invited ASCE to participate in a fact-finding tour of the Netherlands (see “Klotz Joins Congressional Delegation, Participates in Triennial Conference,” ASCE News, July/August 2009, pages 1–2), where we sought to explore new ideas for the protection of coastal cities.

So, ASCE and its bevy of acronyms move forward. I express my appreciation to those who served as members of the ERP, the CPC, and the TCERP under sometimes tempestuous circumstances. Our expertise and integrity are still intact. Since Katrina, we have sent teams to investigate disasters that have included an earthquake in Italy and Hurricane Ike. We remain ready to send teams wherever they are needed. To view a PDF
of the manual, visit www.asce.org/inside/TCERP_Manual_Final.pdf. 

 —D. WAYNE KLOTZ, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE      

Each month you will notice a color heading associated with each article appearing in ASCE News and other ASCE communications.  These headings will indicate into which category the article falls and, therefore, what value you can expect to take away:

KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING
Being the experts society requires civil engineers to be means that you need access to the industry’s newest trends, technical innovations, and research facilities.  ASCE makes sure you have these tools readily available.  Online, in person, or in print, you can get the information you need to work at the highest level.

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Today’s engineering experts possess skills beyond technical mastery. They are inspiring communicators capable of driving people, projects, and the profession forward.  ASCE gives you the resources to become the complete civil engineer who upholds the integrity of the industry, mentors the next generation, and receives recognition for advancing the industry.

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY
Stay connected to ASCE members and the profession locally, technically, and globally.  Your bond with ASCE goes beyond professional relationships—it’s personal, too.  Grow by sharing ideas with members, exciting the next generations of engineers, and reaching out to underprivileged areas.

ISSUES & ADVOCACY
ASCE is the safeguard for the nation’s infrastructure.  Creating programs that not only prioritize civil engineering issues for lawmakers, but also give you the opportunity to raise your opinion, ensures that the voice of the profession is heard.

Pursuant to subsection 7.3 of the Society’s rules of policy and procedure, the ASCE membership is hereby notified that the following vacancies will be available on the 2010 election ballot for terms beginning in fiscal year 2011. For information on how to apply for a vacant position, please contact the individual specified. The qualifications for the vacant positions are as follows:

• President-elect: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing from an eligible region and must have completed one full term of service on the Board of Direction or have served as an institute representative on the Board of Direction between 2000 and 2005.
• Technical Region director: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing and shall have served as a voting member on an institute board of governors. Any person who has been inducted as Society president-elect or as a vice president is ineligible for reelection as a Technical Region director. All other former Board of Direction members who were nominated by districts are eligible to serve. The term is for three years.
• At-large director: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing at any level except that of student member and must possess expertise or a special perspective deemed desirable by the Board of Direction. The term is for two years, and the person holding the position is not eligible for reelection as a region director.
• Geographic region director: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing and have an address of record within the region being represented and must have served as a geographic region governor. Any person who has been inducted as Society president-elect or as a vice president is ineligible for reelection as a geographic region director. The term is for three years.
• Region governor: A candidate must be a Society member in good standing and have an address of record within the region being represented and must have served as a section or branch officer, a member of a section or branch committee, or a member of a Society-level committee of ASCE.

REGION 1 comprises the Boston and Connecticut socie-ties and the following sections: Buffalo, Ithaca, Maine, Metropolitan, Mohawk-Hudson, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Rochester, Syracuse, and Vermont.
REGION 2 comprises the following sections: Central Pennsylvania, Delaware, Lehigh Valley, Maryland, National Capital, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
REGION 3 comprises the following sections: Akron-Canton, Central Illinois, Central Ohio, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Duluth, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Quad-City, Toledo, and Wisconsin.
REGION 4 comprises the following sections: Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
REGION 5 comprises the following sections: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
REGION 6 comprises the following sections: New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
REGION 7 comprises the following sections: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas City, Nebraska, South Dakota, St. Louis, and Wyoming.
REGION 8 comprises the following sections: Alaska, Arizona, Columbia, Hawaii, Inland Empire, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Seattle, Southern Idaho, Tacoma-Olympia, and Utah.
REGION 9 comprises the following sections: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco.
REGION 10 comprises the remaining geographic territory, including Canada and Mexico.

(click image for larger view)

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY

HOW MANY OF YOU can relate to this? You make a clever (or so you think) reference to some aspect of pop culture relating to a TV show you watched or a band you listened to sometime between the 1960s and the 1980s. Everyone laughs except for the person under 30, who just stands there with a blank look on his or her face. Then the awful truth comes out with one old-age-defining question: “Who’s that?” What’s worse, you find out that the questioner was in the first grade then or, the ultimate dagger to the heart, wasn’t even born. Ouch!

As those who read this column are well aware, I refer to myself as the ABC (advocacy, benefits, change) president, the letter C denoting change. This is a word that can make many of us cringe when we hear it. But the truth is that, in order to be effective leaders, we must be willing to change with the times or risk being on the receiving end of those blank stares from the up-and-coming generation of civil engineers.

Change is often all around us. Take this issue of ASCE News, for example. Did you notice the new classification of articles into ASCE’s four “subbrands” as well as the new front-page format? This begins an exciting time for ASCE as we embrace an updated visual identity that reflects the image of ASCE shared by the membership and our nonmember customers. Extensive input revealed six key attributes that define the essence of ASCE’s brand: the adjectives “enduring,” “trusted,” “responsible,” “expert,” and “professional” and the noun “leader.” (See “ASCE Unveils New Corporate Identity, Logo,” page 1.)

The attribute that resonates with me most is “enduring.” It means that for more than 156 years ASCE has adapted to the evolution of technology and to the demands of civil engineers and the public. Our unwavering dedication and commitment to the field of civil engineering and our members have been constants in an ever-changing world. What’s more, our unrivaled community of members and their knowledge base enable us to continually improve our programs, products, and services.

If we are to continue evolving, it is imperative that we change our methods of engaging the youngest generation of members currently in the workforce and those who are preparing to take their first steps out of college. The diversity of our members’ ages is as broad as that of the specialties they practice. What we must realize is that, with more generations in today’s workforce than ever before, the standard approaches are not going to appeal to every group of members. It’s the old question, You may be listening to what I’m saying, but are you hearing me? We need to ensure that our young members are indeed hearing us.

I was recently talking to one of my young staffers because I had read an article on generational differences and wanted to discuss it with him. As we spoke, I noticed that he wasn’t wearing a wristwatch. I asked, “How do you know what time it is?” To my surprise, he pulled out his cell phone, clicked a button, and gave me the time. I, on the other hand, was using my cell phone only for calls and, of course, the occasional e-mail. The times they are a-changin’.

That got me thinking, and I realized that our members’ needs change as well and that ASCE must take steps to ensure that the attribute “enduring” will continue to ring true. And this begins with the way we communicate. We need to ensure that we reach all members at every level, even if that means the message has to change from group to group: it may take the form of a letter, an e-mail, a phone call, a postcard, a post on Facebook, or a “tweet” on Twitter.

That’s why I established the No Wristwatch Committee. Composed of a group of members under the age of 30 living in all corners of the country, this body has been charged with exploring the culture of younger engineers to find out what ASCE needs to do to stay relevant and meet their needs. Essentially, when it comes to helping young engineers advance in their careers and become leaders, I wanted to know what ASCE is providing and what it is not providing.

While the committee is still preparing its final recommendations for presentation to the Board of Direction in October, its members have made significant discoveries through focus groups with members under the age of 30 in Washington, D.C., Houston, and Los Angeles:

• “They don’t teach you that in school.” This statement was heard often in the meetings of the focus groups. Many felt that college taught them the technical side of the profession but when it came to such aspects of their profession as presentations, client relations, and effective writing, they were at a loss and had to learn the hard way. Consider, for example, that you’re over budget and need to charge more on a project but as a consequence you may lose the client. How do you deal with that?
• Section and branch meeting overhaul: Participants expressed very low levels of interest in attending section and branch meetings. The committee members noted, however, that the younger member groups of the branches are active in the community and that it is this aspect that appeals to young engineers.
• A is for advocacy: Advocacy figured prominently in the discussions. Participants commented that engineers need to be proactive in communicating their contributions to society and in defending their position, particularly in relation to the global economy. They want ASCE to be that voice.
• Respect: This generation is out to prove that they are not the socially awkward, pocket-protector-wearing group often depicted in stereotypes of engineers. Rather, they are a bright, athletic (think concrete canoe rowers), gregarious group and they are proud of their contributions to society. They’d like to see civil engineers achieve the same respect as that accorded to physicians and lawyers.
• Social networking: The extent to which young engineers use such tools varies widely, but most see them as more suitable for personal than for professional communication. Moreover, they do not favor the use of such tools in communicating with ASCE.

By the time this issue goes to press, the committee will have deployed an electronic survey to test these findings on a national scale. I look forward to your feedback on this topic, which you can leave on my blog. I think our approach in this respect is going to define the future of ASCE and will enable us to retain our reputation as an enduring association. Though, as Bob Dylan put it, “the times they are a-changin’,” I’m confident ASCE will always be there to change with them.

—D. WAYNE KLOTZ, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

SENIOR LEADERS OF ASCE were on hand for the first leadership training conference for Region 10 to be held outside the United States. With the theme “Honoring the Past, Challenging the Present, and Inspiring the Future,” the event was held in the Philippine capital, Manila, May 15–16. Members of Region 10’s Board of Governors had an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with the presidents of international sections and groups and with the leaders of ASCE’s International Activities Committee. The participants gained a better understanding of the organization, operations, and benefits of ASCE.

According to Potenciano “Junn” Leoncio, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE, the principal associate of P.A. Leoncio, Jr. and Associates, of Quezon City, the Philippines, and the director of Region 10, which comprises the Society’s international sections and groups, the conference gave the leaders an opportunity to meet one another in person and to discuss ways of fostering collaboration. “When international members meet, they spark some sort of fellowship among themselves,” Leoncio says.

In previous years, international members were invited to the United States to attend the Society’s annual leadership training conferences. However, many of those invited were unable to attend because of prohibitive travel costs or difficulties in obtaining visas. Therefore, it was decided to move the venue abroad. According to Meggan Maughan-Brown, ASCE’s director of international relations and strategic planning, this change not only made it easier for international members to attend but also enabled them to focus on issues that loom large in their parts of the world.

Those attending the Manila conference included representatives from Thailand, Greece, Singapore, Italy, South Korea, and Costa Rica. (Japan could not be represented because of traveling restrictions imposed during the initial outbreak of the H1N1 flu pandemic.) Although Leoncio acknowledges that bringing together individuals with a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs is difficult, he says that “we operate under the same engineering principles, and it is not very difficult to establish a common base.”

A strategic planning session designed to help participants set goals for their region was led by David G. Leverenz, P.E., F.ASCE, a senior technical director of Parsons Transportation Group, of Miami, and the chair of the International Activities Committee. Alfredo H.S. Ang, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., Hon.M.ASCE, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Irvine, spoke on the goals set forth in the Society’s publication The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html).

The participants also discussed a program that enables ASCE’s international sections and groups to form partnerships with sections and branches in the United States. (The program was introduced last year in Pittsburgh during the Society’s annual conference.) For example, the international group in the Philippines hopes to form partnerships with the Hawaii and Sacramento sections. According to Leoncio, the partnerships will foster the exchange of knowledge and experience and may also involve visiting speakers and student exchange programs.

A meeting held by the Region 10 Board of Governors at the conclusion of the conference was also attended by Leoncio; Tai Sik Lee, A.M.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at Hanyang University, in South Korea; Albert Tak-Chung Yeung, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Hong Kong; and William Bersing, P.E., M.ASCE, a senior program manager at the Trieste, Italy, offices of Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.

In fact, the meeting was open to all those who had attended the training conference.

The next leadership training conference for Region 10 will be held this fall in Costa Rica and will bring together members from Central America, South America, and Canada. For more information about Region 10 and its conferences and programs, contact Meggan Maughan-Brown, ASCE’s director of international relations and strategic planning, at mmaughan-brown@asce.org or at (703) 295-6024.

When a critical infrastructure system fails, as was the case during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and in the collapse of the bridge carrying Interstate 35W over the Mississippi in Minneapolis, it can severely undermine the health, safety, and welfare of the public as well as the economy of a region or nation. We often discover that underlying the failure of these systems are fundamental problems having to do with planning, funding, design, construction, or operation. ASCE’s newly developed report Guiding Principles for the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure establishes a framework for assessing the effectiveness, adaptability, and resilience of critical infrastructure systems. For true change to be achieved, we must all embrace and adopt the principles set forth in the report. As the stewards of infrastructure, civil engineers can play a vital leadership role by promoting the principles to all stakeholders and working to implement the necessary changes. To begin, I ask you to read the report and its accompanying brochure, both of which may be downloaded at no cost from ASCE’s Web site - www.asce.org - and to begin thinking about how the recommendations affect your work. Next, invite a speaker to the next meeting of your section, branch, younger member forum, or student chapter so that you can discuss these principles and gain a better understanding of why they are important. To request a speaker, contact Laurie Hanson, ASCE’s executive assistant to the deputy executive director, via e-mail at lhanson@asce.org. To encourage other stakeholders to adopt the principles, I also ask you to personally deliver copies of the report or brochure to the mayor, the city engineer, and the leaders of public works agencies in your area. Both the report and the brochure are designed to expound the principles and their importance to a nonengineering audience, an essential step in initiating the significant changes needed for long-term success. If we truly seek fundamental change in our efforts to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public, we must all work together to raise public awareness.

The response to the 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure demonstrates that the public is paying attention to this problem. As the stewards of those critical systems, it is our responsibility to ensure that the public understands the shortcomings besetting the nation’s infrastructure and what must be done to improve conditions. I am asking every section and branch to become involved in this effort by using the Report Card Outreach Toolkit, which will be distributed in October. This free resource provides all of the tools needed to start an infrastructure discussion in your community, including customizable PowerPoint presentations, an engineer’s guide to public presentations, and brief videos illustrating conditions in several infrastructure categories and showcasing solutions that have been adopted by certain communities around the country. Keep an eye on your mailbox and start thinking about the groups in your community with which you could discuss ASCE’s infrastructure assessment and the nation’s infrastructure crisis. If you have questions about how to get started or would like to receive an extra copy of the Report Card Outreach Toolkit, send an e-mail to reportcard@asce.org.

As a key supporter of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, ASCE helped garner $100 billion in stimulus funds for infrastructure. As projects came up for approval this spring, ASCE has kept members informed of major developments. Many recovery projects are now under way, and ASCE will continue to post updates on the act on the Society’s recovery Web page: http://content.asce.org/gr/TheAmericanRecovery-
andReinvestmentActPAGE.html.

Please note that several new podcast episodes in our series Insights are now posted at www.asce.org/insights. They feature Major General Don Riley, the deputy commanding general and deputy chief of engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and James A. Rispoli, P.E., F.ASCE, an executive adviser at Booz Allen Hamilton, of McLean, Virginia, and the chair of ASCE’s Industry Leaders Council. General Riley discusses current challenges and opportunities facing the civil engineering profession and stresses the importance of visionary strategic leadership in promoting innovation in the industry. Ris-poli discusses the threats facing the civil engineering profession and the current opportunities in the area of infrastructure investment.

Nominations are being solicited for the 2010 O.H. Ammann Research Fellowship in Structural Engineering, which is bestowed annually on an ASCE member to encourage developments in structural design and construction. For more information or to download an application, visit www.seinstitute.org/inside/ammann.cfm. Applications are due by November 1. This year’s fellowship was awarded to Taraka Ravi Shankar Mullapudi, S.M.ASCE, a doctoral candidate in the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of Houston.

The information technology department at the Society’s headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, has donated more than 90 pieces of software and licenses to the All Saints Catholic School, in Manassas, Virginia, on behalf of the civil engineering profession and the members of ASCE. The software and licenses were no longer needed by ASCE, and it was determined that they should be donated to such nonprofit entities as schools and churches. The school’s administrators were elated to receive the donation.

The sixth installment in ASCE’s Leader Education and Development (LEAD) program, an eight-month course designed to make engineering managers more effective as leaders, will begin on November 12 at ASCE’s headquarters, in Reston, Virginia. The program is designed to help participants communicate better, bring out the best in others, handle situations involving conflicts, and build trust with colleagues and clients. Past participants have given the program an average rating of 4.8 on a scale of 5. Those taking the course have found that they benefit greatly from the discussions, the faculty’s experience, and the time spent on improving their leadership skills and cultivating the skills of others. Participants earn up to 45 professional development hours or 4.5 continuing education units and come away with skills and insights that can pay dividends not only professionally but also personally. For more information about the course and to obtain details on benefits, dates, registration, and more, visit www.asce.org/lead or e-mail Melissa Prelewicz, ASCE’s senior manager of professional practice, at mprelewicz@asce.org.

Do you know a civil engineer who is 30 or younger and is already distinguishing himself or herself in the profession? I invite you to nominate that person to be among the National Engineers Week Foundation’s New Faces of Engineering program for 2010. ASCE will accept nominations through Monday, October 5. The program celebrates the accomplishments of our younger professionals. Representatives from 14 different disciplines within engineering will be selected for national recognition and will have their pictures and accompanying profiles included in a full-page advertisement that will run in USA Today during Engineers Week, which will be in February. Nominations collected by ASCE will be reviewed and considered for our own New Faces of Civil Engineering celebration for 2010. Ten nominees will be selected for recognition for their civil engineering contributions, and 1 of those 10 will be submitted for national recognition. ASCE and other engineering groups promote engineering by showcasing talented young professionals whose accomplishments are benefiting society in a tangible way. These engineers serve as compelling role models for engineering students as well as for high school students considering various career paths. For a nomination form or more information about the program, visit www.asce.org/professional/diversity.

In response to strong member demand, ASCE will significantly increase its webinar offerings this fall and winter. More than 125 webinars will be offered, and more than 40 of them will address new topics. The course titles include the following: Project Partnering; Curve Number and Vegetative Techniques to Manage Storm-Water Runoff Sustainably; Passive Solar Buildings; Engineered Rainwater Collection and Case Studies for Sustainable Water Management; Storm-Water BMPs; Wind Tunnel Modeling of Pressures for Cladding Design; Corrective Work in Steel Structures; LRFD for Geotechnical Engineering Features: Driven Piles and Drilled Shafts; An Introduction to the Facilities Planning Process; Geosynthetics and Their Applications; Engineered Rainwater Collection; and An Introduction to Fire Protection Engineering for Buildings. In addition to its many regular webinars, ASCE will continue its live P.E. exam review courses on the Web. Three review courses are available: for the P.E. Civil Exam, the P.E. Structural I Exam, and the P.E. Environmental Exam. ASCE’s P.E. Civil Exam review course now includes three sessions to assist those preparing for the afternoon depth portion exam. To access the calendar of fall and winter webinars or to obtain information about the exam review courses, visit www.asce.org/conted or call (800) 548-2723.

ASCE members should have received something extra in their issue of Civil Engineering last month: the 2009–2010 Member Resource Guide. The guide will help you maximize your ASCE membership by serving as your map to career-enhancing opportunities. Inside you will find industry information, technical and practice area resources, networking and career resources, and more. If you did not receive your issue or if your copy did not contain a guide, please contact the customer service department by phone at (800) 548-ASCE (2723) or (703) 295-6300 or by e-mail at member@asce.org.

As one year’s awards selection cycle ends, another begins. Please help ASCE continue to recognize those among us who represent the best in our profession. In particular, I invite you to nominate young researchers for the 2010 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prizes. A Huber prize, which is conferred for research related to civil engineering, is often considered a career-making accolade. Preference is given to younger members, generally below the age of 40, whose early accomplishment promise fruitful careers in research. Nominations for the Huber prizes and for distinguished member status within ASCE are due by October 1. For more information or to access downloadable forms, visit www.asce.org/awards.

What is new for ASCE members in 2010? Keep an eye out for your 2010 ASCE membership renewal form, which was mailed to you on September 8. The debut of such programs as free electronic learning workshops, expanded mentoring opportunities, and the ASCE Enterprise Research Library Card are just some of the benefits you can look forward to in the coming year. And if you renew your membership before December 1, you can help your section reach the finish line first in ASCE’s “renewal race.” This year the small, medium, and large sections with the highest percentages of renewing members will each be awarded $1,250. For more information, visit www.asce.org/finishline. You must renew your membership for 2010 to participate in these new programs and contests. Renew today by mailing in your renewal form, by visiting www.asce.org/renewal, or by calling (800) 548-ASCE (2723) between 8 AM and 5 PM (eastern time) Monday through Friday.

As our annual conference—ASCE’s 139th Annual Civil Engineering Conference—draws near and you make your plans to attend, we would like to encourage you to participate in ASCE’s international program. This year the program will have as its theme “Investing in Sustainable Infrastructure for Economic Growth” and will comprise two sessions: a luncheon and roundtable discussion on October 30 and a dinner on October 31. We hope that you will attend and take this opportunity to network with civil engineers from around the world. Many of ASCE’s international partners will be there to exchange ideas and share their civil engineering experiences. Those who attend from outside the country look forward to networking with ASCE’s members and leaders. Another feature to keep in mind is a webinar on Sunday, November 1, entitled The Seven Qualities of Effective Leaders, which will be presented by Stuart Walesh, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, Dist.M.ASCE.

—PATRICK J. NATALE, P.E., F.ASCE,
Executive Director

KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING

SITUATION: An ASCE section officer living in a large midwestern city submits a complaint to the Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) detailing the indictment of a county official and several engineering and construction firm executives on charges of bribery and conspiracy. According to media reports provided by the section officer, the county official, whose responsibilities included supervising public works projects undertaken by the county, had accepted gifts of goods and services from local design and construction firms in exchange for funneling millions of dollars in no-bid projects to those firms.

The CPC then obtains a copy of the federal indictment, which provides a detailed description of the design, construction, and landscaping of a luxury vacation home belonging to the county official—work that was performed either at no cost or at prices drastically below market rates by the firms named in the indictment. Among the executives said to have taken part in this scheme is a civil engineer and ASCE member. As a principal of an engineering design firm, this member is alleged to have donated a number of goods and services to the vacation home project, including providing a staff member to serve as a full-time construction superintendent for the duration of the 15-month project. The indictment further lists the significant number of contracts awarded to the member’s firm during that period, contracts that were approved either by the county official alone or by a review committee acting on that official’s recommendations.

QUESTION: Did the engineer’s actions in donating goods and services or subsidizing the construction of a public official’s vacation home in exchange for favored treatment in securing public construction contracts violate ASCE’s Code of Ethics?

DISCUSSION: Category (a) in the guidelines to practice for canon 5 of the Code of Ethics reads as follows: “Engineers shall not give, solicit, or receive either directly or indirectly, any political contribution, gratuity, or unlawful consideration in order to secure work.” At the time of this investigation, category (a) in the guidelines for canon 6 further stated that “engineers shall not...knowingly engage in business or professional practices of a fraudulent, dishonest, or unethical nature.”

On the basis of the information in the media reports and the criminal indictment, the CPC believed it had sufficient evidence to open an investigation into the ethics charge, and it drafted a letter to the member advising him of the pending case. Unfortunately, the CPC was unable to solicit a response from the member to the notice of violation; while certified letters were signed for and accepted by the member and by his attorney, neither individual accepted the CPC’s repeated invitations to offer a defense to the charge.

With no response from the ASCE member, the committee was forced to rely on public filings and transcripts of the criminal proceedings for further details. In court documents filed by the ASCE member’s counsel, the defendant claimed that the goods and services provided to the public official were not intended to influence the official to act improperly but rather were offered merely as a gesture of friendship, with no expected return “other than perhaps a thank you.” The defense further stated that the charge of bribery was unsubstantiated because prosecutors were unable to link the donated services to a desire to influence any particular transaction. The defense contended that the services were at most an attempt to create general goodwill between the parties rather than a specific “quid pro quo.”

Neither the criminal jury nor the CPC was convinced by the member’s claim that the goods and services had been provided with no intent to exert undue influence on the official’s selection of professional service providers for public projects. At trial, the member was found guilty of bribery and conspiracy and received a 45-month criminal sentence, and his firm was assessed a substantial criminal fine. Meanwhile, the CPC held that the member had violated canons 5 and 6 of ASCE’s Code of Ethics and recommended to the Board of Direction that he be expelled from the Society.

The member was again advised of the committee’s decision, both directly and through counsel, but he again declined to respond to the notice of proceedings. Under the Society’s rules of policy and procedure, when a member fails to present a defense either in writing or in person to an alleged violation of the Code of Ethics, the Board of Direction is entitled to reach a decision based on a presentation of charges and other supplemental materials and to impose disciplinary actions on the member if it finds the charges have been substantiated.

The Board of Direction reviewed the CPC’s summary of charges and the trial documentation and voted to uphold the committee’s recommendations. The member was expelled from the Society, and notice of his expulsion appeared in a Society publication.

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY

Society Celebrates Volunteerism Prior to Engineers Week
EVERY YEAR Engineers Week is sponsored by a different engineering society, and next year is ASCE’s turn. In the months leading up to the 2010 event, which will be held February 14–20, the Society will be undertaking a project entitled Celebrate Engineer Volunteerism to highlight the contributions made by ASCE’s engineer volunteers. These individuals together log more than a million volunteer hours each year in helping others and, in the process, promoting the engineering profession. The project will also emphasize the collective contribution that the Society and its volunteers make through precollege outreach programs, community service endeavors, work in connection with disaster response, and involvement in the projects organized by the group Engineers Without Borders–USA.

This summer has seen several notable volunteer projects, among them Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, the eighth time this annual event has been held. At Nitsch Engineering, Inc., a Boston-based civil engineering firm, the event was designed to give girls in grades 6 through 12 an insight into certain aspects of bridge design and construction. The participants heard from Judith Nitsch, P.E., M.ASCE, the firm’s president, who urged them to believe in themselves and to consider a career in engineering. The students also constructed bridges out of pasta and marshmallows, and each took home a copy of ASCE’s Bridges 2009 Calendar. The winners of the bridge construction competition were given a private tour of the Tobin Memorial Bridge, which spans the Mystic River in the Boston metropolitan area to link Charlestown and Chelsea.

As part of the Celebrate Engineer Volunteerism project, ASCE will be giving special recognition to members who through humanitarianism and a sense of civic responsibility represent the best in engineering. ASCE News and other Society media outlets will be calling attention to various volunteer undertakings in the coming months.

For more information about how to involve your section or branch in the Celebrate Engineer Volunteerism project, send an e-mail to outreach@asce.org. Members are also encouraged to participate in the community service project that is carried out each year at the conclusion of the Society’s annual conference. The event this year will take place on November 1 in Kansas City, Missouri. For additional information about the project, contact Becky Waldrup, ASCE’s manager of professional practice, at rwaldrup@asce.org or visit http://content.asce.org/conferences/annual2009/index.html and click on “Post-Conference Events.”

Mentoring Program Looks Back on Successful Year
THE MENTORSHIP COMMITTEE within the Los Angeles Section’s San Bernardino–Riverside Branch is celebrating the success of a program that is fostering the professional development of engineers during the early stages of their careers. The program pairs young engineers with those who are more experienced and are willing to share their expertise and offer guidance. As part of the festivities, a dinner was held on June 13 in Ontario, California, just east of Los Angeles.

“I have always been an advocate for mentoring because, had it not been for mentors in my life, I could not be where I am today,” said Ontario’s mayor, Paul S. Leon, at the dinner. “Don’t think of it as a commitment or a job. Who will you plant the seed of success into? Who are you growing? [Take] what are you successful in and help someone else be successful in what you do.”

In 2007 several members of the branch’s Younger Member Forum, together with Chris Turnage, P.E., M.ASCE, a former branch president, discussed the need for a mentoring program. Neil Nilchian, P.E., M.ASCE, the engineering project manager for the Riverside County Transportation Department and the Mentorship Committee chair, volunteered to undertake a pilot program. The program began in 2007 and proved to be highly successful. In May 2008 the branch’s Mentorship Committee began its first yearlong mentorship program, and the dinner on June 13 celebrated the year’s achievements.

Throughout the year, mentors met with their protégés once a month to help them establish goals and formulate strategies for achieving those goals. Courtney Otubuah, P.E., M.ASCE, an engineer in the San Bernardino office of the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff and a protégé in the program, says that the meetings with her mentor, Nilchian, were extremely beneficial: “We would meet in the evening and go over what I was doing right then and what things I wanted to accomplish as a young engineer. . . . He gave me some really good pointers and some helpful tips that helped me as I progressed in my job.”

The protégés, however, are not the only ones who learn from the experience. Jerry Burke, P.E., M.ASCE, the city engineer of Glendora, California, and a mentor in the program, says that the program has helped him to see aspects of his own work in a different light. “When we get a little more experience, we kind of accept things more as just the way they are,” he says. “One of the best benefits of becoming a mentor is to hear things from a younger member’s perspective.”

In addition to the monthly meetings between the mentors and their protégés, the committee organized quarterly events to help foster not only fruitful exchanges of ideas but also camaraderie. The first of these events, a daylong mentoring workshop and orientation session, was on May 17, 2008, and it was followed by three social events: a bowling night, a dinner gathering, and a billiards night.

According to Nilchian, the Mentorship Committee is pleased with the success of the past year and is hopeful that other ASCE entities will establish similar programs. “We have many working or retired experienced civil engineers who are willing to share their expertise with our younger members for their career development purposes and the betterment of our profession. Therefore, we hope our program will have a long-lasting impact on many of our members,” Nilchian says.

Nilchian is planning to lead an ad hoc organizing committee that will hold a mentoring training workshop for the Los Angeles Section, which encompasses seven branches, this fall. ASCE’s Committee on Career Development helped the San Bernardino–Riverside Branch establish its mentorship program and organize the daylong mentoring workshop. Visit http://content.asce.org/mentoring/ for information on ASCE’s online mentoring program—eCareerMentor—and on the mentoring program for sections and branches. The latter program offers grant funding.

Erratum
In the Short Takes section of the July/August issue it was incorrectly reported that the Industry Leaders Council would hold its first meeting during ASCE’s annual conference. The group will actually meet in Washington, D.C., October 12–13. The discussions will focus primarily on infrastructure, sustainability, and the economic climate.

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY

TEN YEARS AGO, if someone had told Elizabeth Hausler, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, that she would one day be helping people in rural China build earthquake-resistant houses, she probably would not have believed them. The child of the owner of a masonry construction firm in Plano, Illinois, a rural area just outside Chicago, the 40-year-old now teaches the fundamentals of design and construction to villagers in the Chinese province of Sichuan whose homes collapsed during the 2008 earthquake.

Hausler is the founder and chief executive officer of Build Change, a nonprofit organization that offers training to homeowners, builders, engineers, and government officials in developing countries on ways of designing, funding, and constructing earthquake-resistant houses. “It is sad and unacceptable that so many people are killed because of buildings collapsing during earthquakes, especially those with the least resources to recover after a disaster,” she stated in an e-mail to ASCE News.

Hausler explained that in 2001, approximately halfway through her doctoral program in civil engineering, she began contemplating her future. Then, she explained, three things happened that year: first, an earthquake in Gujarat, India, in January took the lives of more than 20,000 people; second, she met a mechanical engineer, Martin Fisher, Ph.D., who had founded a nonprofit organization that provides equipment to entrepreneurs in Africa; and third, the tragic events of September 11 shocked the nation. Although she did not personally know anyone who was affected by the tragedy, she said that she “felt compelled to use my engineering skills to do good.”

After her graduation, Hausler traveled to Gujarat as part of the Fulbright Scholar Program and gained an insight into how earthquake-resistant houses could be constructed in developing countries. She learned that “it is easier and more sustainable to make minor, low-, or no-cost changes to existing ways of building rather than to introduce a completely new technology that may not be appropriate for the culture and climate or may require materials, skills, or tools that are not available locally,” she  stated.

Since then Hausler has helped design residential structures in India, Indonesia, and China. She stated that the most dangerous houses include those in which unreinforced masonry walls are poorly connected to precast-concrete roof slabs. “Once the masonry wall cracks, there is very little ability to absorb more energy [and] very little reserve capacity to prevent collapse,” she stated.

In contrast, Hausler explained, reinforced, or confined, masonry is a significantly safer construction material and is popular in many developing areas. “It consists of a load-bearing masonry shear wall system confined by reinforced-concrete tie columns and bond beams,” she stated. The masonry wall, she explained, is constructed before the concrete in the tie columns is cast. Toothing the masonry and adding steel between the column and the wall make it possible for the supporting elements to move together and reduce the likelihood of collapse, she stated.

Developing a safe design is not the end of the process for Hausler and her organization, however. She and her staff have developed training programs that give homeowners a better understanding of materials, construction methods, and contracts. She has also had success in encouraging local governments to subsidize the construction and to give contractors incentives to follow the prescribed building standards. (Build Change provides consulting services only and does not fund projects itself.)

In many cases, however, a government subsidy is not sufficient to fund an adequate dwelling, according to Hausler. In China, for example, some homeowners must take out low-interest loans, while others are resorting to their personal accounts or are applying for grants from international agencies.

Indeed, funding is a challenge not only for homeowners but also for Build Change itself. Although it is a nonprofit organization, Hausler explains, it operates like a for-profit engineering design firm that also functions as a construction supervisor, training institute, and applied research firm. “Our clients, typically poor homeowners in rural areas of emerging nations, cannot afford to pay us for our services. So we have to cover our costs through philanthropic contributions,” she stated.

The other challenge, according to Hausler, is combining the economic, technical, and sociopolitical elements in a way that gives homeowners an opportunity to construct earthquake-resistant houses. From the sociopolitical standpoint, “either the homeowner has to want to build an earthquake-resistant house or a local government must enforce a building standard,” she explained, which is why education is perceived as an essential part of the process.

To overcome language and literacy barriers, Hausler and her staff work with local engineers and make liberal use of illustrations in depicting construction methods and materials. She also stated that neither age nor gender has affected the work she has done. “We work together as equals,” she said. “As soon as we demonstrate [our construction ability], the cultural, gender, and age barriers break down,” she stated.

As of press time, the number of houses in China completed or under construction was approximately 947. However, said Hausler, “we are just about to kick off a 2,000-house supervision and training program, so these numbers are likely to change rapidly.” Build Change is headquartered in San Francisco and operates in Sumatra, Indonesia, and in Sichuan, China. To learn more about the organization or to make a donation, visit www.buildchange.org.

 —BRETT HANSEN

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNITY

Fellows Elected
The following members were elected fellows of the Society in recent months. ASCE fellows are legally registered professional engineers or land surveyors who have made significant technical or professional contributions and have demonstrated notable achievement in responsible charge of engineering activity for at least 10 years following election to the ASCE grade of member. Fellows occupy the Society’s second-highest membership grade, exceeded only by distinguished members.

MICHELE DI NATALE, P.Eng., F.ASCE, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1975 and a master’s degree in environmental engineering in 1976, both from the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, in Italy. A professor and the dean of the faculty of engineering at Italy’s Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Di Natale has worked on a variety of topics, including shore dynamics and the interaction with incoherent seabed, numerical simulation of currents in the surf zone (including the hydraulic risk connected with the dynamics of beaches), and coastal pollution processes near river mouths. Many of his projects have had an effect on the environmental engineering community outside his country. Throughout his career he has operated in the field of hydraulic engineering, developing designs for sewer systems, purification plants, irrigation systems, land protection, and plants for potable water. He has also carried out specialized hydraulic maritime studies dealing with the evaluation and interpretation of coastal dynamic phenomena. A licensed professional engineer in Italy, Di Natale has numerous technical publications to his credit and has been the principal investigator on a number of research projects.

WILLIAM B. FULLERTON, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1981, a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida in 1990, and a doctorate in political science and international relations from the University of Florida in 1999. Currently the vice president of airport program management and principal in charge for the Louis Berger Group, Inc., of Morristown, New Jersey, Fullerton has been a leader in infrastructure development for more than 25 years and has overseen all international airport programs administered by the Louis Berger Group. The projects on which he has worked have involved such parties as the Asian airport investment company Changi Airports International, of Singapore; Aéroports de Paris; and various government organizations in Macau, Haiti, Pakistan, and Peru. His accolades include the U.S. Department of Defense’s Legion of Merit, and in 2008 he was named an international airport professional by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The technical works to which he has contributed have been published by ASCE, the Transportation Research Board, and the American Association of Airport Executives. A licensed professional engineer in California, Fullerton serves on the infrastructure committee of the American Peruvian Chamber of Commerce and is a board member of the International Association of Airport Executives.

ROBERT Y. LIANG, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, earned a bachelor’s degree from Tamkang University, in Taiwan, in 1974, a master’s degree from North Carolina State University in 1979, and a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985, all in civil engineering. In a career that now spans three decades, Liang has been involved in education, research, and consulting. He is currently a professor in the civil engineering department at the University of Akron and from 1994 to 2000 served as department chair. In 1996 as a principal investigator and through a proposal competition, he received a $2-million grant from the Ohio Board of Regents to establish the Center for Infrastructure Materials and Rehabilitation under the auspices of both the University of Akron and Case Western Reserve University. He continues to serve as director of the center, which seeks to promote multidisciplinary research on sustainable construction materials and on technologies for rehabilitating infrastructure. Liang has also been active within ASCE, including serving as chair of the Properties of Materials Committee, which then was part of the Engineering Mechanics Division and now forms part of the Engineering Mechanics Institute. From 1994 to 1998 he served as an associate editor of ASCE’s Journal of Engineering Mechanics. A professional engineer in California, Ohio, and Taiwan, Liang has been the recipient of the Wendell R. Ladue Award from ASCE’s Akron-Canton Section and of the Outstanding Service Award from the committee in charge of the Great Lakes Geotechnical/Geoenvironmental Conference.

MICHAEL R. MARKUS, P.E., F.ASCE, obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona in 1978. He also holds a master’s degree in civil engineering, which he earned in 1993 from the University of Southern California. Over the past 21 years Markus has worked in California for the Orange County Water District. Currently the district’s general manager, he is responsible for providing vision and leadership for this world-renowned groundwater management agency. Prior to his appointment as general manager, Markus served as the assistant general manager of groundwater replenishment systems operations, and in that capacity he was responsible for overseeing the design, construction, commissioning, start-up, and operation of the $481-million Groundwater Replenishment System, which includes a 70 mgd (264,950 m³/d) advanced water purification facility incorporating microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation. The system also boasts a 13 mi (21 km) pipeline 60 to 72 in. (152 to 183 cm) in diameter, and the expansion of the seawater intrusion barrier involved eight new well sites. (As reported last month in ASCE News, this system is the 2009 recipient of ASCE’s Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award.) A registered professional engineer in California, Markus has been cited in several technical publications, and in 2007 Engineering News-Record put him on its annual list of the 25 most newsworthy individuals. That same year he was also honored with the Orange County Government Engineer of the Year Award from the Orange County Branch of ASCE’s Los Angeles Section and with the Outstanding Government Engineer of the Year Award from the Orange County Engineering Council.

FERNANDO R. MIRALLES-WILHELM, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Universidad Simón Bolívar, in Venezuela, in 1987. He also earned a master’s degree from the University of California in 1989 and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. Currently an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Florida International University, Miralles-Wilhelm is a water resources engineer with more than 15 years of experience in surface and groundwater hydrology; potable and wastewater systems; transport processes and physical, chemical, and biological processes in aquatic ecosystems; water resources in urban and watershed-scale systems; pipeline hydraulics; and water quality control. Since 2006 he has also served as the director of the university’s Applied Research Center. In this capacity he is responsible for directing 40 full-time researchers on projects in environmental management and in fossil-fueled and renewable energy, as well as projects for the military and for clients in the federal and private sectors. In his more than 15 years of teaching, Miralles-Wilhelm has worked with ASCE student chapters at various universities. He also served on an ASCE committee charged with developing guidelines for incorporating uncertainty into hydrologic modeling simulations. Named young scientist of the year in Venezuela in 1995, last year he became a diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. He is a licensed professional engineer in Florida, Massachusetts, and Venezuela.
 
JAMES J. ROZEK, P.E., F.ASCE, graduated from Michigan State University in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He went on to earn a master’s in business administration, also from Michigan State, in 1973 and a master’s degree in engineering from Tulane University in 1978. Currently a senior vice president, principal project manager, and principal professional associate with Parsons Brinckerhoff, Rozek has more than 38 years of engineering experience, and his assignments have included major underground facilities for such projects as the EastLink freeway, in Melbourne, Australia; Singapore’s tunnel sewerage system; the Epping to Chatswood rail line, near Sydney, Australia; and the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He has also applied his expertise to rapid transit systems, including those in Atlanta, Houston, and Miami. In addition to long-term assignments on major tunnel projects, Rozek has played an important role in the specialty tasks of peer review and due diligence, chairing the peer review groups convened for the North–South Bypass Tunnel, in Brisbane, Australia, and the Indira Gandhi International Airport, in New Delhi, India. Prior to his appointment as senior vice president, Rozek was Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Texas and Oklahoma area manager and in that capacity was responsible for administrative and technical support and oversight of many concurrent projects. A licensed professional engineer in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas, Rozek has more than 40 technical publications and presentations to his credit.

Fellow applications may be obtained from ASCE’s world headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, by calling (800) 548-2723, extension 6289. From outside the country, the number is (703) 295-6289. The e-mail address is fellows@asce.org. The application may be found on the Web at www.asce.org/pdf/fellowmemapp.pdf. Completed applications may be submitted online at www.asce.org/membership/fellowgrade.cfm (click on “Online ASCE Fellow Application”). Questions concerning fellow guidelines (including guideline waiver inquiries) or the application process may be directed to Patrick Ballou, the applications coordinator, at (703) 295-6169 or pballou@asce.org. Completed applications are reviewed monthly by the Membership Application Review Committee.

WILLIAM A. CLEVENGER, F.ASCE, died in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on July 9 at the age of 89. Born in Wheatland, Wyoming, on September 12, 1919, Clevenger attended the University of Wyoming, where he received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1943. He then served three years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and left the military as a first lieutenant. Next he worked as a soils engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Denver, and in 1956 he joined the Denver office of Woodward-Clyde Consultants. Clevenger spent more than 17 years with the firm, designing more than 300 earth dams and approximately 100 tailings dams. In 1973 he moved to San Francisco to become the chairman of the board of Woodward-Clyde. He retired in 1984 and moved to Sequim, Washington, but continued to consult on dam projects for several more years. Clevenger was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering and was recognized for his contributions to the field of geotechnical engineering. He served as president of ASCE’s Colorado Section, and in 1963 he coauthored the book Earth and Earth-Rock Dams (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1963), which is still used in many college courses. Donations in his name may be made to the College of Engineering, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071.

EDWARD O. GROFF, P.E., Pres.96.ASCE, died on July 3 at the age of 76. Groff was born on May 4, 1933, in Holly, Colorado. He graduated from high school in Boise, Idaho, in 1952, and during his first two years at Boise Junior College (now Boise State University) he worked for his father and uncle’s excavation firm. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho in 1956 and then joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Portland, Oregon. In 1957 he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was in active service through May 1958. He then served in the Air Force Reserve until October 1965, when he was honorably discharged. Groff worked in various capacities with the Corps. From 1957 through 1972 he was involved in the construction of dams along the Columbia River. He also became the chief of engineering for the construction of the Dworshak Dam, in Orofino, Idaho, and was the project engineer for a levee project in Lewiston, Idaho. In 1975 he became the chief of civil design for the Corps district headquartered in Walla Walla, Washington. He retired from the Corps in 1989 but soon thereafter accepted a job with the Idaho Power Company, headquartered in Boise, as well as a position associated with a five-year project to refurbish Idaho’s Swan Falls Dam. Groff served as ASCE’s president from 1996 to 1997, and during his term he negotiated agreements of cooperation with sister engineering societies in 33 countries. His work was recognized with a number of accolades during his career. Memorial donations may be made in Groff’s name to the Department of Civil Engineering, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725-2075; to the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Idaho, P.O. Box 441022, Moscow, ID 83844-1022; to the Saint Mark’s Catholic Church Building Fund, 7960 W. Northview Street, Boise, ID 83704-7242; or to the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, 611 W. Grove Street, Boise, ID 83702. Condolences to the family may be submitted online at www.CloverdaleFuneralHome.com.

FREDERICK LORRAINE HOTES, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, a retired captain in the Navy Reserve, died on June 8 in Chico, California, at the age of 90. Born in Portland, Oregon, on July 23, 1918, Hotes was a Seabee in the U.S. Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps. He also served on the engineering faculty at the University of California at Berkeley and as a consultant for the World Bank. The family requests that any contributions in his memory be made to Lions Clubs International Foundation, in care of Newton-Bracewell Chico Funeral Home, 680 Camellia Way, Chico, CA 95926. Friends may share thoughts and memories of Hotes online at www.nbcfh.com.

ISSUES & ADVOCACY

IN 1975 ONLY THREE MAJOR CITIES in the world had populations of more than 10 million. Thirty years later, 20 cities had achieved that status, illustrating the world’s unprecedented population growth and economic development and underlining the demands that this growth is placing on such natural resources as fertile land and freshwater. To address these growing challenges, ASCE’s Task Committee on Sustainable Design, with the guidance and support of ASCE’s leadership, is working to make ASCE a leader in promoting the goals of sustainable development. The committee believes that as the acknowledged stewards of the built environment, civil engineers must lead the way in planning, designing, and constructing sustainable infrastructure.

According to a document that is to be presented by the task committee to ASCE’s Board of Direction in October, sustainability comprises “a set of environmental, economic, and social conditions in which all of society has the capacity and opportunity to maintain and improve its quality of life indefinitely . . . without degrading the quantity, quality, or the availability of natural resources and ecosystems.” The document also states that “sustainable civil engineering improves the quality of life today and in the future by improving infrastructure and the built and natural environments. Sustainable civil engineering also minimizes environmental impact by reducing the rates of consumption of renewable and nonrenewable resources and the rate of generation of man-made wastes to or below the rates of the earth’s natural carrying capacity.”

The civil engineering profession’s incorporation of sustainability is comparable to its treatment of value engineering, or value analysis. Introduced during World War II, value engineering is a project delivery service that was developed as a way of addressing chronic shortages of manpower and materials. By the early 1970s value engineering was on the periphery of the civil engineering profession and was being offered only by a small collection of progressive civil engineering firms. Later in that decade it was estimated that only about half of the construction industry designers and contractors were aware of value engineering and that only about 1 percent of them were actively using its techniques. Since then value engineering has become an expected component of any well-planned and well-implemented civil engineering project. It is also included in standard civil engineering curricula.

Like value engineering in the 1970s, sustainable design is on the brink of entering the mainstream of the civil engineering profession. Yet many firms and their clients today hesitate to integrate sustainability into their projects because they believe that the initial costs will be prohibitive. The task committee is making an effort to demonstrate that the initial costs may not be as high as they are perceived to be. It also notes that, in many cases, long-term expenses are reduced.

Sustainability is not a new concept for ASCE. Its Committee on Sustainability, which is chaired by Albert A. Grant, P.E., F.ASCE, a president emeritus of ASCE, operates under the auspices of the Society’s Technical Activities Committee and has promoted sustainable development for more than a decade. It has organized and supported the Engineer’s Forum on Sustainability in connection with the work done by the American Association of Engineering Societies, and it has also provided regular updates to ASCE’s Policy 418 (“The Role of the Civil Engineer in Sustainable Development”). In addition to releasing Sustainable Engineering Practice: An Introduction, edited by Jorge A. Vanegas, Ph.D., M.ASCE (Reston, Virginia: ASCE Press, 2004), the committee has developed sustainability guidelines for ASCE’s sections, branches, and student chapters. As another contribution, it formulated ASCE’s Sustainable Development Action Plan, which was authorized by the Board of Direction on May 2, 2008.

The Task Committee on Sustainable Design is now building upon the work of that committee. It supports the initiative known as Practice, Education, and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure (PERSI); the work done by Civil Engineering Certification, Inc., and its American Academy of Water Resources Engineers and Academy of Geo-Professionals; and the efforts of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It is also building upon the research and practical experience of numerous ASCE members, who have helped their colleagues understand how to effectively incorporate the principles of sustainable development into daily practice.

The task committee has been given five objectives in providing civil engineers with essential and practical tools for integrating sustainability into their daily work:

1. Define the role of the Society and the profession in advancing sustainability in civil infrastructure.
2. Collect and review information with a bearing on sustainable development and related certification programs from the U.S. Green Building Council and similar organizations.
3. Define sustainability in terms understood and fully supported by ASCE members and by their clients and employers.
4. Develop a plan that will help the Society apply the principles of sustainable development to civil infrastructure.
5. Determine if the certification of civil engineering professionals and projects is a viable option for advancing sustainable design.

The task committee was formally appointed by the Board of Direction last January. Since then it has surveyed various sustainability certification programs for professionals and projects worldwide. It has held sustainability focus meetings and has solicited recommendations from such ASCE entities as Civil Engineering Certification, Inc., and its academies. (The committee reported on its progress to the board at meetings held this year on April 24 and July 24.)

Over the next 18 months the task committee is to accomplish the following:

• Organize and host a summit on sustainability for end users that will provide valuable guidance on ASCE’s unique role in sustainable development certification programs for projects and professionals.
• Explore, develop, and test an effective communications strategy that will address sustainability, including developing and disseminating case studies and case histories and processing member feedback on how sustainability has been implemented or has failed to be implemented in projects. 
• Obtain certification, with the assistance of the ASCE Foundation, for ASCE’s headquarters building, in Reston, Virginia, through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System and implement sustainability principles in the building’s management and operating procedures.
• Become a sponsor of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability and join forces with the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other agencies in funding research that is carried out jointly by students and faculty members.
• Proactively support the sustainability and climate change initiatives currently under way among ASCE’s institutes, technical committees, and educational activities. 
• Provide a speakers bureau, or roster, of civil engineering experts who can represent ASCE at the gatherings of sustainability leaders worldwide. 
• Actively participate in public policy efforts with like-minded groups worldwide to advance sustainability and address climate change. 
• Seek opportunities to advance sustainability through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and other national legislation and by incorporating sustainability into the solutions associated with ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.

Civil engineers must, the task committee believes, overcome the human tendency to ignore the long-term consequences of pursuing unsustainable actions. It also believes that, for every progressive government department or consulting firm applying the principles of sustainable development in planning, designing, and implementing a project, there are several organizations that feign adherence, doing no more than changing their logos and mission statements to include sustainability.
The task committee recognizes that civil engineers confronting issues related to sustainable design must engage in multidisciplinary collaboration with planners, lawyers, and investors. Nevertheless, it believes that the voice and point of view of civil engineers are vital. 

The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html) states that “today’s civil engineers will need to transform themselves to meet the challenges of tomorrow. They must stay abreast of changing technologies, market trends, and business developments. Civil engineers need to develop and implement new methods and products that are sustainable and sensitive to the environment. Moreover, they must cultivate new technologies, direct the market, and develop new business practices to lead the transformation into tomorrow.”

—ALBERT GRANT, P.E., F.ASCE
Chair, Committee on Sustainability

—CRAIG FARKOS, P.E., M.ASCE
Project Manager,
Michael Baker, Alexandria, Virginia
Chair, Task Committee on Sustainable Design

Geotechnical Special Publication: The Role of Full-Scale Testing in Foundation Design

PAPER TOPICS: The Geo-Institute is soliciting abstracts of technical papers for a special publication honoring Bengt H. Fellenius, Ph.D., P.Eng., M.ASCE. To be entitled The Role of Full-Scale Testing in Foundation Design, the volume will be edited by Mohamad H. Hussein, M.ASCE, Robert D. Holtz, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, K. Rainer Massarsch, and Garland E. Likins, Jr., P.E., M.ASCE, and will make its appearance during the institute’s annual conference in 2012. Technical papers covering all aspects of foundation testing and design and foundation construction practices will be considered, and papers documenting case histories are particularly welcome.

DEADLINE: September 30, 2009, for abstract submission. Finished manuscripts will be expected in late 2010.

CONTACT: Abstracts of no more than 300 words are to be e-mailed to Hussein at MHGRL@pile.com.

19th Annual International Conference on Storm-Water and Urban Water Systems Modeling
February 18–19, 2010, Toronto

PAPER TOPICS: Using state-of-the-art computer models to resolve real pollution problems and for ecorestoration; surface water quality modeling; modeling effects on aquatic systems and habitats; storm-water and pollution management modeling; urban water systems modeling; urban drainage system design and analysis; wetlands, best management practices, total maximum daily loads, and low-impact development in relation to wetlands; field data monitoring and emerging instrumentation; biocomputing (genetic algorithms and neural networks); GIS, FM/AM, and CAD systems and analysis; decision analysis systems; and policy, legislation, permitting, and enforcement.

DEADLINE: Abstracts are to be e-mailed to admin@computationalhydraulics.com by January 8, 2010.

CONTACT: Additional information may be obtained at www.computationalhydraulics.com.