James Kaklamanos knows how important his role as a civil engineering educator is because it wasn’t so long ago that he was a civil engineering student. “Absolutely, if it weren’t for some of the professors whom I had the privilege of learning from, I don’t think I would’ve pursued engineering in the first place,” said Kaklamanos, who is in his fifth year as an assistant
Sabrina Rivera has a question for you. Do you know where your water comes from? “I can talk to students and intelligent people, and the common thread to the responses is that people just don’t know,” Rivera said. “But it’s not something you learn in school. That’s something I want to push more in the future, teaching people that there is this complex net of
In no way is Muhammad Elgammal a civil engineering outsider. He hails from a family of engineers (five to be exact). He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. But Elgammal has also made a conscious effort to develop and maintain an outsider’s perspective to his work. “I think that’s what’s made me an effective communicator,” Elgammal
Not yet 30 years old, Marilisa Stigliano is already a leader among leaders. A project controls manager for AECOM in New York City, Stigliano devotes time each week as lead of a team of deputy project managers that advises project managers around the metropolitan area. “It’s been an incredible experience for me,” said Stigliano. “I love being a mentor for the deputy project managers.” “It’s
Jonathan Brower’s official title with the ASCE Texas Section’s Dallas Branch is Civil Engineering Club Champion – emphasis on “champion.” Brower has been mentoring students and scheduling an array of civil engineering lectures at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas since 2013. That’s nearly four years of service for juniors and seniors in the civil engineering and architectural design classes. Almost every Friday. For four
Not many civil engineers have an apprenticeship like this one. Erica Mullen, known to everyone in her life as Sunny, spent much of her childhood in the gym, honing her gymnastics skills on the balance beam and tumbling mat. She went on to earn All-American honors at Rutgers University, after placing third on the uneven bars at the 2010 USA Gymnastics Nationals. All the while
They say no one knows you like you do. Chad Norvell’s career validates the cliche. He began college studying architecture, and he enjoyed it, but he couldn’t help feeling that his true talents lay elsewhere. “I was interested in the details and the mechanics that made structures work,” Norvell said. “I wanted to do work that produced something physical and tangible.” He switched majors to civil
Civil engineers working in construction often ask this question. There is not a catch-all answer here, but the short answer is you must be persistent in finding ways to do design work in your job. The reason this is a tricky question to answer is that professional engineering license experience requirements differ in every state. That being said, I will focus my answer on how
Vernon Allen Wuensche, 66, active in the Texas Section and its Corpus Christi Branch, and a project designer for the city for more than three decades, died Dec. 25 at his home. Wuensche, P.E., M.ASCE, began his career with the engineering consulting firm of Ogletree & Gunn of Corpus Christi and was next employed by Urban Engineering, where he worked on utility and wastewater management
I am really glad that a civil engineer recently asked me this question because I think the answer can have a profound effect on the career of a civil engineer. How important is it to work in the field as a civil engineer at some point in your career? I can provide a very personal answer to this question by giving you my early career
