ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Dimitrios Athanasiou, Ph.D., E.I.T., A.M.ASCE, is a senior associate of environmental and earth sciences at Exponent in Bellevue, Washington; he has a Ph.D. from Texas Tech in civil engineering; and he’s the co-chair of the ASCE EWRI Seattle Chapter. But he began his education with a bachelor’s degree back home in Greece in physics. So he has an interesting perspective on any comparison between the theoretical and the applied. In episode 140 of ASCE Plot Points, Athanasiou talks with guest hosts Brianne Duncan and Wendy Cohen of the ASCE EWRI Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee.

Kevin Brown, P.E., M.ASCE, is a construction services manager at TranSystems in Philadelphia and an adjunct professor  at the College of New Jersey. And as he’s entered into the leadership phase of his career, he’s approaching these opportunities with generosity and thoughtfulness. In episode 139 of ASCE Plot Points, Brown outlines his journey from student to teacher and talks about how he's trying to fill gaps for the next generation of civil engineers.

Infrastructure advocacy takes center stage this week with the ASCE Legislative Fly-In in Washington, D.C. Sarah Matin, P.E., M.ASCE, Orlando office principal for S&ME and chair of the ASCE Public Policy and Practice Committee, is one of the many ASCE members headed to Capitol Hill this week looking to keep the IIJA momentum going. In episode 138 of ASCE Plot Points, Matin talks about how IIJA funding is affecting work going on in Florida and what’s next for infrastructure advocacy.

You never know how those engineering skills you develop in your career might translate in other areas of your life. Case in point: Jaffer Almosawy, P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE. He’s a project manager for GCW Inc. in Las Vegas, specializing in water and wastewater design. But recently, he’s also become known as ASCE’s Minister of Love. What exactly does that mean? In this special Valentine’s Day episode of ASCE Plot Points, Almosawy explains.

Issues of workforce dominate the conversation around civil engineering in 2023. And one of latest workforce trends is the notion of quiet quitting. Jennifer Sloan Ziegler, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, is an engineer and project manager for Cypress Environment and Infrastructure in Jackson, Mississippi, and an ASCE Region 5 governor. In episode 136 of ASCE Plot Points, Ziegler talks about quiet quitting and why she thinks it might be an essential strategy for the modern civil engineer.

Sustainability has come a long way over the course of Antoinette Quagliata's career – from project add-ons to default requirements. A ​manager of sustainability services for Dewberry, Quagliata, ENV SP, talks on episode 135 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast about the changes she's seen and how current sustainability tools are making her work better than ever.

Brian Brenner, P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of the practice at Tufts University and a principal engineer with Tighe & Bond in Westwood, Massachusetts. He’s published three collections of essays through ASCE, and he has a new monthly column, “More Water Under the Bridge,” on Civil Engineering Source. Remarkably, all these accomplishments – the teaching, the work, the writing – springs from the mind of a 4-year-old. Well, that is to say, Brenner fell in love with bridges as a toddler has managed to maintain that childlike wonder for his work ever since. In episode 134 of ASCE Plot Points, Brenner breaks down his bridge engineering origin story and why finding the humorous side of things is his natural writerly point of view.

Michel Bruneau, Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng, F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE, returns to the ASCE Plot Points podcast to discuss his new book, "The Blessings of Disaster." In part one, he argued why learning from extreme weather events and other disasters is essential. In part two, he outlines how such learning can be done.

Michel Bruneau, Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng, F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE, has a new book out today, “The Blessings of Disaster,” that argues the best way forward – if not the only way – is by learning from the extreme weather events and other disasters that beset us. In episode 132 of ASCE Plot Points, Bruneau discusses his new book, the “Three Little Pigs” fable, and why we must find blessings in disasters.

The ASCENT Tower in Milwaukee – at 25 stories – is the world’s tallest timber building. In episode 131 of ASCE Plot Points, the architect behind the ASCENT, Jason Korb of Korb and Associates, talks about the unique challenges inherent to the ASCENT and how collaboration and innovation helped make history possible.

Duncan Wardle, former head of innovation and creativity at Walt Disney Company, will serve as the closing speaker at the ASCE 2022 Convention, Oct. 26 in Anaheim, California. In episode 130 of ASCE Plot Points, Wardle talks about innovation and how to do it.

Colette Easter is not a native Kentuckian. But she’s lived and worked there a long time now, and she cares about the state. An engineer with the Metropolitan Sewer District in Louisville, she played a huge leadership role in the 2019 ASCE state infrastructure report card for Kentucky. So when floods tore through parts of Eastern Kentucky this summer, it spoke to Easter both professionally and personally. In episode 129 of ASCE Plot Points, Easter talks about the work she’s doing in Louisville to ensure water resilience for her county, and why that resilience so often starts with public awareness.

Sarah McEwen has worked as a water resources engineer in Jackson, Mississippi, for nearly a decade. Shawn Miller, entering his senior year as a civil engineering student at Jackson State University, has called the city home his entire life. In episode 128 of ASCE Plot Points, the two ASCE leaders share stories from the recent water crisis as the city seeks a pathway toward resilience.

Stu Walesh is an ASCE distinguished member; a longtime civil engineer specializing in water with experience in the public sector, the private sector, and academia. Through it all, he's approached every day as a chance to learn something new. In episode 127 of ASCE Plot Points, Walesh talks about how he developed that growth mindset and how it helps create positive disruption.

Every career journey has stops along the way. And for many people, those are just called jobs. But for the lucky among us, those stops along the way eventually add up to a destination job. But for Melissa Hilsabeck, EIT, A.M.ASCE, she’s found that destination job very early in her career. She’s a capital projects coordinator in the construction management division for the Port of Long Beach. On episode 126 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Hilsabeck talks about her career journey and the many exciting projects happening at the port.

These days it takes a lot of different people with a lot of different skills to make civil engineering happen. It really comes down to teamwork and technology. On episode 125 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Bentley Ruggles, a senior project manager for Dewberry, talks about how virtual reality technology is changing the way projects get done.

Efficiency is essential these days. There isn’t enough time or money for anything less. And efficiency is borne of innovation. The Office of Public Transportation in Alabama is one such innovation – a partnership between the state department of transportation and the University of Alabama in Huntsville with the simple goal of improving transit for the citizens of Alabama. In episode 124 of ASCE Plot Points, two Alabama Office of Public Transporation leaders, Mehrnaz Doustmohammadi and Michael Anderson, discuss the collaboration and if the model could be a good fit in other parts of the country.

Joel Figueroa-Vallines, P.E., F.ASCE, is a structural and forensic engineer and president of SEP+A Engineering Consulting, headquartered in Orlando. He left home to drive south for Surfside, Florida, last summer in the aftermath of the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium. He wound up staying for three weeks, helping where he could. In episode 123 of ASCE Plot Points, Figueroa-Vallines reflects on the tragedy a year later and how he’s seen it change the industry.

Big-picture thinking, long-term planning - they seem to be at a premium these days. But not in Reno, Nevada. Not when it comes to clean water. Danny Rotter is an engineering manager for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority in Reno, and he works as part of a team that is using scenario planning and detailed data analysis to ensure the region's clean water future all the way out to the year 2100. On episode 122 of the ASCE Plot Points, Rotter talks about how that process works and why it's so important.

Civil engineering careers can take many shapes. You can work for a giant firm. You can work for a smaller firm. But what about those medium-sized firms? On episode 121 of the ASCE Plot Points, Sam Potts, a transportation engineer in Los Angeles, California, details the benefits of working for a medium-sized firm.