The ASCE Board of Direction has endorsed updated strategies to improve the state of America’s infrastructure, transform the profession so that civil infrastructure is more sustainable, and reduce the life-cycle cost of infrastructure by 50 percent by 2025 and foster the optimization of infrastructure investments for society. At its July 8-9 meeting in San Diego, the Board held strategic discussions on the Society’s Sustainable Infrastructure
The Einstellung Effect – where the German word means “approach” or “way of doing something” – refers to trying to resolve an issue, problem, or opportunity only by using approaches that have worked in similar situations, rather than looking at each new situation on its own terms. This narrow, habitual, and left-brain dominated tendency, which is illustrated below, inhibits creativity and innovation. Another term for
Issues with the Flint, MI, water crisis and Washington, DC’s metro service show us that now, more than ever, innovation is required to reinvent our approach to sustainable infrastructure. Introducing innovation inherently presents several obstacles for organizations and businesses to overcome. Whether the source of the obstacle is funding, technology, manpower, or operations, DC Water’s CEO and General Manager George Hawkins, Esq. believes innovation is
In assisting civil engineers with their professional development efforts over the years, I have had many civil engineers ask me if it is worth their while to invest their money in attending industry conferences, especially if their employers won’t pay for them to go. In my opinion, the answer is yes. Here are three reasons why I think attending industry conferences is worth the time and
One of ASCE’s longest tenured members has died, a professional who continued giving of his engineering abilities to projects in Alabama long after retirement. Richard Shaul Woodruff, who joined ASCE in 1937 as a student at the University of Alabama College of Engineering, died in Birmingham at the age of 103. He achieved ASCE Life Member status in 1978, before the oldest of today’s Younger
This is the last of three posts on innovation and creativity by Brent Darnell, Aff.M.ASCE, president and owner of Atlanta-based Brent Darnell International. For more information, email [email protected] or visit brentdarnell.com. In the first post in this series, we talked about why it’s important for companies to promote innovation. The second post discussed 10 ways to do just that. But what about you as an individual? How
I don’t have a right or wrong answer to this question, because the answer depends on a few key items. However, I will try to give you some tools and information that you can use to answer this question for your specific situation. First, I will say that I highly recommend that as a civil engineer you pursue your professional engineering license. I know that
This letter, from a father to a son, was written by professional engineer Bob Breeze upon his son’s graduation as a mechanical engineer. The letter was published in a collection entitled, Letters to Young Engineers, published by the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and edited by Daniel Hoornweg, UOIT associate professor and Jeffrey Boyce research chair. Inspired in part by Ranier Maria Rilke’s Letters
