For this issue of the AEI Student Magazine, we asked each student chapter to nominate an exceptional member. One particular nomination stood out, and we are grateful for the chance to share how one student’s leadership and contributions have led to amazing experiences for her chapter and others in architectural engineering. Nicole O’Hearne, a 3rd year student in architectural engineering, serves as Cal Poly’s current AEI Vice President. Through her leadership role, she has planned the chapter’s quarterly site and office visits including visits to seven firms and four sites in San Diego and San Francisco. Visits to San Diego’s Hope-Amundson Structural Engineers, Lovelace Engineering, and Moffatt & Nichol gave students a sense of company culture and exposure to recent projects. Lovelace, a smaller firm, took the group on a tour of a highend residential building. Moffatt & Nichol showcased the variety of structural engineering
34 Spring 2014
applications with a focus on marine structures and bridge design. The recent fall quarter trip to San Francisco involved visits to four companies including a visit to Simpson Strong-Tie to view products and the production facility as well as a site visit led by Degenkolb. Rutherford + Chekene showed students the San Francisco Exploratorium with a recent retrofit of Pier 15 for the new museum location. After a structural tour, students were given time to see all of the amazing museum exhibits. At the office tour of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH), students were given various presentations on different