Neeraj Kumar Sharma’s passport is running out of pages. He’s got too many stamps.
Sharma’s civil engineering career and his penchant for travelling has taken him to 25 different countries (and counting) in six years, bringing a truly global perspective to his work and life in general.
“Every country, every city has its own set of challenges,” Sharma said. “Once you start traveling and seeing and...
For some people, an address represents merely where they live.
For Ruwanka Purasinghe, it’s who he is.
Purasinghe is Los Angeles to his core.
“I was born and raised in L.A., so I have a special connection with the city. I love this city,” he said.
“L.A. is an incredibly huge melting pot of people, cultures, and ideas. There’s something in L.A. for everybody. You can snowboard and...
Casie Venable had a simple wish as a kid.
She wanted to help people.
She didn’t know what form that would take. She couldn’t know how her life would play out. But she did know she wanted to make a positive contribution to the lives of others.
Ten years later, she’s stayed remarkably true to that instinct.
Venable has made several service trips around the world and is...
Alexa Ducioame was one of only two women in most of her civil engineering classes in college.
She’s working now to make sure that the women of future generations don’t find themselves in the same position.
“We have an informal women engineers group here. I think we all realize it’s important,” said Ducioame, a project engineer for Moore Engineering, Inc. in West Fargo, ND.
“We want to...
It was just after midnight. Guillermo Díaz-Fañas, 14, awoke to a buzzing in his ears.
He sat up and looked around. Surely, this was some kind of dream. The walls appeared to bend; everything was shaking. His immediate thought was of protecting his 12-year-old brother.
“All I could think was, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’” Díaz-Fañas remembered. “I sheltered him with my...
Being a role model wasn’t really a choice for Aziza Amiri. It was a job she was born into.
“I have so many little cousins, I’ve lost count,” Amiri laughed. “I’m one of almost 20 grandchildren, and I’m the oldest, so I’ve always been around young kids my entire life.”
Amiri isn’t complaining. She loves serving as a role model – for both her family and...
Survey says …?
Bright futures for civil engineers.
Results of the 2017 ASCE Salary Survey find that the median pre-tax income for civil engineers was $101,000 in 2016. Base salaries, meanwhile, have risen between 4 and 5 percent each year since 2014.
“It’s an exciting time to be a civil engineer,” said Norma Jean Mattei, Ph.D., P.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE. “As professionals, we take pride in our work...
The picture is starting to come into focus.
The ASCE Board of Direction spent a good portion of its quarterly meeting, July 28-29 in Baltimore, honing its strategic plan, a process that began in January with vision, goals, and measurables set to coalesce at the October meeting.
The Board broke into focus groups to discuss and refine six goal statements. They then ranked several potential strategies...
The ASCE Board of Direction voted unanimously at its July meeting to adopt new language in the Society’s Code of Ethics that expresses a professional obligation to provide fair and equal treatment for all.
The ASCE Code of Ethics, adopted in 1914, lays out the model for professional conduct for ASCE members. The newly adopted canon – Canon 8 in the Code of Ethics –...
Imagine you could go back in time and meet yourself at 22 years old.
What would you say to your younger self?
What career advice would you offer, given all you’ve learned since?
What nuggets of civil engineering wisdom would you bestow?
We asked our members. Here’s what they said:
Jaffer Almosawy
Jaffer Almosawy, EI, ENV SP, A.M.ASCE, Engineering Intern I – GCW Inc. – Las Vegas, NV:
“Be assertive, take...
