G E O R G I A
ENGINEER Volume 23, Issue 1 February | March 2016
INTERVIEW WITH
RUDOLPH BONAPARTE GEOSYNTEC
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G E O R G I A
ENGINEER Publisher: A4 Inc. 1154 Lower Birmingham Road Canton, Georgia 30115 770-521-8877 E-mail: rfrey@a4inc.com Editor-in-Chief: Roland Petersen-Frey Managing Editor: Daniel Simmons Art Direction/Design: Pam Petersen-Frey
Contributing Authors Oko Buckle Thomas C. Leslie Jo Ann J. Macrina Dr. Gary May Amanda Naar T. Wayne Owens Daniel J. Simmons Roger Singleton
The Georgia Engineer is published bi-monthly by A4 Inc. and pro-
vides a source of general engineering information to advance the business of engineering companies governmental agencies, municipalities, counties, department of transportation, businesses, and institutions including the university system. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the Georgia Engineer or its publisher nor do they accept responsibility for errors of content or omission and, as a matter of policy, neither do they endorse products or advertisements appearing herein. Parts of this publication may be reproduced with the written consent of the publisher. Correspondence regarding address changes should be sent to the publisher via e-mail to rfrey@a4inc.com or by dropping us a note at the address mentioned above. Subscriptions are available by going online at www.thegeorgiaengineer.com
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COnTEnTS
ATLANTA’S PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS STOPS MORE THAN 50 SPILLS SINCE INCEPTION Read about the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management’s wastewater collection system capital improvement program—one of the nation’s largest. p8 IS YOUR BENCHMARKING GIVING YOU THE RIGHT ANSWER?
Profits are great, but “how did we make this profit”? T. Wayne Owens discusses the financial health of your firm. p12 EXCELLENCE IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
The Georgia Engineer takes a look at our state’s excellence in engineering education. p14 2015 ENGINEERS OF THE YEAR
The Georgia Engineer takes time out to honor individuals in our engineering community who stand out. p21 AN INTERVIEW WITH RUDOLPH BONAPARTE
A certain company keeps showing up on the lists of engineering awards of excellence: Geosyntec Consultants Inc. The Georgia Engineer brings you an exclusive interview with the man behind this excellence—Rudolph Bonaparte. p24
p32 ENGINEERING PROJECTS OF EXCELLENCE The Georgia Engineer highlights some of this past year’s most impressive projects. p32
NEFGEN MEETS UP SYNOPSIS GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY A report on the NEF Generation team’s visit to Georgia Tech p43 PROBLEM SOLVED? NOT YET FOR AMERICA’S ENGINEERS NATIONAL ENGINEERING FORUM It’s time for our nation to recognize that a strong and vibrant engineering enterprise is directly related to the sustainability of our way of life. Take a look at thoughts on a problem not yet solved. p45 ENGINEERING PROMISING YOUNG MATHEMATICIANS As we celebrate Excellence in Engineering, a very important event is taking place in Savannah, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Denver, and in Taipei, Taiwan. More than 500 MATHCOUNTS® Chapter Competitions will show us how young people are preparing themselves for their professional futures. p48 THREE KEYS TO BUILDING A WINNING CULTURE Burns & McDonnell talks about the tremendous benefits of cultivating a healthy corporate culture. p48 2015 ASHRAE TECHNOLOGY AWARDS Take a look—be impressed. p56
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GEORGIA ENGINEER February | March 2016
CONTENTS
Atlanta’s Predictive Analytics Stops More than 50 Spills Since Inception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Is Your Benchmarking Giving You the Right Answer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Excellence in Engineering Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2016 Engineers of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 An Interview with Rudolph Bonaparte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Engineering Projects of Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 NEFGEN Meet Up Synopsis - Georgia Institute of Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Problem Solved? Not Yet for America’s Engineers National Engineering Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Engineering Promising Young Mathematicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Three Keys to Building a Winning Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 2016 ASHRAE Technology Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
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ADvE R T I S E M E n T S Amason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Amec/Foster Wheeler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Atlanta Technical College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11, 39 Burns McDonnell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 CARDNO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 City of Atlanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Columbia Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Crom Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Edwards Pitman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Georgia 811 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Georgia Institute of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Georgia Power Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Geosyntec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Hayward Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Back Cover Insurance Office of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Kennesaw State Univeristy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Mastermind Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 New South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Nova Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Reinforced Earth Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 RHD Utility Locagting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Siltsaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 STV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Terrell Hundley Carroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 THC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 TSJ Dana Deemer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 TTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 UGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 United Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Inside Front Cover
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Atlanta’s Predictive Analytics Stops More than 50 Spills Since
Inception By Jo Ann J. Macrina, P.E. & Patrick Woodall
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ayor Kasim Reed has established Atlanta as a thriving hub for technology, and the Department of Watershed Management has been utilizing new technologies and techniques for the past few years in several areas including developing a new way to reduce sewer spills that can negatively impact the triple bottom line: environmental, social, and economic health of a community. During the ten-year period between the entry of its Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Consent Decree in 1999 and the completion of the requirements of its Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Consent Decree (entered in 1998), the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management implemented one of the nation’s largest wastewater collection system capital improvement programs. By 2009, the City had realized a 75 percent reduction in the incidences of spill events due in large part to the capital improvement program and programs mandated by the Consent Decree.
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The number and volume of spills were reduced by a variety of projects and programs: pipe rehabilitation (relining, pipe bursting, point repair), installing storage for additional system capacity (tunnels, storage vaults), and separation of combined sewer pipes. In addition, educational programs on keeping fats, oils, and grease (FOG) out of pipes gained momentum. After successful completion of required projects in the CSO Consent Decree and meeting all current milestones on the SSO Consent Decree, the sanitary sewer system experienced 135-160 spills per year for the past five years. Three
uses local alarms in manholes throughout the city’s 1,850 miles of sanitary sewer lines to identify a spill. Delays in spill detection can often lead to an increased spill volume and a more expensive fine from regulatory agencies. The challenge was to utilize existing equipment and assets to bring new spill detection techniques to life to assist in moving the dial once again. With a charge from the top of Watershed Management, Environmental Compliance Manager Patrick Woodall and the department’s flow monitoring division developed a univariate anomaly detection system. The program performs compara-
years ago, the main cause was FOG at 52 percent followed by debris at 26 percent and pipe collapse at 17 percent. Today the main causes are debris at 37 percent and FOG at 36 percent followed by pipe collapse at 12 percent. Two fronts became apparent; spill reduction had plateaued and debris was rising as the main cause. A major component of debris is wipes (baby wipes, personal wipes, disinfectant wipes, etc.) and its presence was becoming most notable at water reclamation centers. Since FOG prevention education is clearly effective, a ‘No Wipes in Pipes’ campaign was kicked off. Concurrently, a ‘Red Team’ was initiated to focus on locations experiencing more than one spill at the same location within a 12-month period and to implement a new program that will utilize existing tools in new ways. Like many wastewater utilities across the country, Watershed Management
tive analyses using sewage level values from a flow monitoring database and realtime sewer levels. Unaware of any detection system like it in the water and wastewater utility industry, the team’s new program, Predictive Spill Analytics, provided the opportunity to foresee sanitary sewer spills before they occur using a centralized system. Since 2013, the system has prevented nearly 50 spills by leveraging existing equipment at no additional cost to the city.
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values to the average of values over a 90day period. The data is populated in the flow monitoring database for every 15 minutes. If a monitor’s analysis shows multiple sewage level values that are outside of the normal range, or outliers, the system will alert team members through the centralized anomaly detection system to prompt additional investigation. The program provides a PDF hydrograph report of all the locations where multiple outliers were found. The system can evaluate whether the flow is too high or low which could mean the issue is downstream or upstream from the manhole where outliers triggered a response. The team can also view all the monitors in the system through a mobile dashboard that color codes alerts. Once outliers are reported, a flow monitoring team member conducts a preliminary investigation to determine the cause and request a response from Watershed Management’s sewer operations division to make repairs or to provide maintenance at the site. A number of factors can contribute to sanitary sewer spills including heavy rainfall events, undersized pipes, and the need for pipe rehabilitation. As a result of this program, Watershed Management is able to perform measures to reduce the impacts of spills including an increased preventative maintenance schedule and repairing or replacing aging
How it works The Department of Watershed Management has more than 275 area-velocity flow monitors installed in manholes across the city. The Predictive Spill Analytics Program allows the team to track all of the monitors linked to the centralized anomaly detection system rather than solely relying on local alarms. Every two hours, the system compares current sewage level GEORGIA EnGInEER
infrastructure. Every three months, the locations of monitors are reevaluated, and monitors are repurposed in other areas across the city to make the best use of the monitors which have a life expectancy of around ten years. Still in its infancy, the Predictive Spills Analytics Program has proven to be an important component of Watershed Management’s critical undertaking to ensure the health and safety of the citizens of Atlanta. In 2014, the program prevented 32 spills and nearly 20 spills were averted in 2015. Although the program does not completely eliminate spills, it has drastically reduced the number of spills in areas that are prone to repeat spills. The city currently monitors more than 15 high-priority repeat spill areas and looks to identify a minimum of ten more using this new technology over the next year. In instances where spills cannot be avoided because of rain or condition of pipe, Watershed Management has been able to minimize the volume by providing a faster response. The flow monitoring division has an oncall team that monitors the system seven days a week. Catalyst for Change As the program continues to grow, the city of Atlanta will add more analytics to the expand outliers in the wastewater system from primarily measuring level to include other parameters like flow, veloc-
ity, and temperature. Watershed Management also looks to branch out and capture information in the water distribution system including surface water quality anomalies. The department is working with Georgia Tech Research Institute to detect bacterial signatures in creeks, rivers, and streams days before physical samples can be tested in labs and further track pollutants from industrial waste. This is another example of the innovative work Environmental Compliance Manager Patrick Woodall along with flow monitoring team members Edwin Williams and Derrick Lindsey visit a manhole connected to the centralized spill detection system on Thomasville Boulevard in Southeast Atlanta.
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taking place at the city of Atlanta as we seek to improve our methods and get measureable results. With more than $1 billion invested in the Capital Improvement Program and almost $3 billion in the two consent decree programs, Atlanta has been able to leverage equipment already in place for the betterment of communities at no additional cost to the city’s ratepayers. Other utilities can use this technology as a model to leverage their own equipment to mitigate spills in cities across the nation. The development of this system speaks to the level of commitment the Department of Watershed Management has to protect Atlanta’s environment and to the talent and dedication of its team members. v 11
Is Your Benchmarking Giving You the Right Answer? By T. Wayne Owens
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enchmarking is a very valuable activity, and firms are embracing it as a tool to assist them in their financial management. The usefulness is undeniable and can give a nice view of not only the financial health of the firm but also answer the question why. Bottom line profits are great but ‘how did we make this profit’ is just as important as what the profit is. Profit is made up of revenue (sales), cost of revenue (direct labor, other direct costs, and reimbursable costs), overhead, and other costs (bonus, taxes, discretionary contributions to retirement plans). The ratios within this formula are the basis for many of the metrics used in benchmarking. This is great, but what happens to the metrics when the accounting processes are not correct? Let’s take a look at a few metrics to see what can happen. The basis for many performance metrics is direct labor. Direct labor enters the accounting through the timesheet, then get costed according to the firm’s labor costing policy. If this policy includes capping certain employees, the direct labor on the financial statements will be low, thus the related metric will not be accurate. The effective multiplier will be higher than actual, and the utilization will be lower. Additionally, job performance will be better than actual. The effective multiplier (net revenue/direct labor) and payroll factor (utilization times effective multiplier) are common metrics used in firm manage-
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T. Wayne Owens
ment and project manager goals. The potential problem starts with net revenue. This is total revenue less other direct costs and reimbursable costs. A typical scenario occurs when a firm charges clients for use of firm equipment but doesn’t cost this item to the contract. As an example, the firm bills clients for mileage but doesn’t cost that mileage to the job. Here, the overhead is overstated by the lack of allocation, the reimbursable costs are understated, and the net revenue is overstated. So a firm may believe they have a 3.1 effective multiplier where the real answer is 2.9. Speaking of overhead, capping labor rates and not charging costs to contracts effects the firms overhead rate but in opposite directions. Capping labor rates moves direct labor to indirect labor through the payroll variance account in standard cost systems. Not costing equipment/vehicles to jobs also increases overhead. Not bad if you are a government
contractor. Very bad if you are a government contractor. Not only are your performance metrics suspect but your overhead rate is overstated. Sure, you potentially could be paid more but most government contracts contain cost certifications which create a very real liability for the firm who overstates their overhead. Many CPAs recommend to their clients that the depreciation they record on their financial statements be tax depreciation including the 179 deduction. They consider this appropriate since this is what will be included on their tax return. This is not appropriate. The purpose of a firm’s financial statements is to give management a tool to make appropriate business decisions, not just tax decisions. Asset purchases should be written off over their useful lives, thus their costs are included in the financial statements over this time. With the 179 deduction, overhead spikes in years of heavy asset acquisition, and there is little to no depreciation in years where there is none. The position of accounts in your accounting can also effect the benchmarking results.
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Any metric that contains net income from operations is susceptible to this. Many accounting firms believe bonuses and profit sharing contributions are just costs of doing business, yet for A/E benchmarking these costs are ‘below the line’ costs. Net income from operations is computed without bonuses, profit sharing contributions or income taxes. These costs are considered discretionary (regardless of what you say about taxes). The first step firms should take when starting the benchmarking process is examine their accounting policies and procedures to determine if they actually reflect the true costs associated with a contract. The goal is accuracy and consistency, not making any individual client, principal or project manager look good. The setup of the financial
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statements should be in accordance with industry standard with appropriate accounting policies. This will result in accurate financial information, consistency in the reporting of costs, and give firms competent, reliable financial information.
financial statement audits, tax returns, and more to A/E/C firms. Contact: wowens@twocpa.com. v
T. Wayne Owens, CPA, is the founder of T. Wayne Owens & Associates, PC, a CPA firm with a singular focus on the design industry, providing accounting services, overhead audits,
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EDUCATION 3D Design and Model Construction By Dr. Wade H. Shaw, P.E. | Kaolin Professor and Dean of Engineering at Mercer University Engineering Prototypes Mercer Engineering is about improving the world through education, research, discovery, inspiration, empowerment, and service. Our graduates enter their professional careers equipped with realworld education and experience, and a commitment to serving their communities. An emerging trend in engineering education is the use of rapid prototypes to illuminate our understanding of a com14
Setting up a 3D printer
ponent’s physical relationship to other components in a product design. We believe that the use of scanned images, 3D rendering, 3D printing, desk-
top fabrication, and casting technology will enable engineers to be even more inspired and empowered. These tools are universally appealing to a broad range of design challenges, and we believe this technology will be a large part of future professional practice. At Mercer, the ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) degree takes an interdisciplinary path that includes a core curriculum in electrical, GEORGIA EnGInEER
mechanical, industrial engineering, and technical communication. Undergraduate specialties can be completed in six engineering disciplines, and Mercer Engineering also offers Master of Science degrees in eleven technical fields. In each degree option, there are opportunities to use imaging, physical models, and prototypes to link theory with practical applications that we design, build, and test in our labs. Design and Fabrication on a Desktop A powerful starting point for many design problems involves capturing an electronic image of an existing device or component. A wide range of scan technology provides a means to capture the physical dimensions of a target so that it can be placed into a software tool for modification. For example, a component that performs poorly can be converted into an image that can be edited and improved using CAD tools. This improved image can be rendered to the designer in 3D space to
space and mechanically assembling the entire component. Typically, this is called 3D printing and this is widely Scanning a museum’s used as arrowhead artifact to build p r i n t e r s a 3D model that can be come down safely handled by guests in price. Many approaches and materials can be used as this technology expands and matures. ‘Subtractive’ construction starts with a block of material and uses cutting/shaping tools to remove material by passing the cutting heads over a tool path. This is also an old technology but one that is rapidly becoming a desktop tool that can produce extremely accurate wax prototypes. Desktop CNC equipment is available for
At Mercer, we believe this lifecycle of analysis, design, imaging, rendering, physical prototyping, and testing is quintessential engineering. We are devoting lab space to support image capture, CAD, 3D printing, CNC, and casting so that our students experience this process from start to finish. An interesting byproduct is that non-engineers can see and appreciate the engineering process as well as the physical things that we can build. K-12 school groups 3D-printed dinosaur spine that visit with based on scanned images us to learn from a museum collection about STEM immediately grasp the engineering concepts that go into the design of a product when they can visualize the product on a workstation and then see it physically materialize in space.
visually confirm the modifications and their fit with other components. Optical imaging can capture color, texture, and shading in addition to physical geometry. CAD technology has been around for many years and is a staple of an engineer’s toolbox. What is now available is the ability to produce a physical rendering of a CAD design via both additive Polishing a 3D-printed and subtractive Object for Fit/Finish construction. By ‘additive,’ we mean building a prototype by adding material to a start point in
modest cost that can produce sophisticated prototype parts suitable for form/fit/finish evaluations. A particularly powerful technology that has been around for centuries is metal casting. Many schools of engineering once had a foundry or casting shop in days gone by. This technology is coming back into focus because prototype molds can be made with both 3D printing and desktop CNC devices. This is an exciting merger of old engineering in the casting shop and modern engineering tools that build prototypes and molds. Imagine using a scanned image of a component like a turbine blade and improving its design in CAD so that a 3D printed wax prototype becomes the mold master for an aluminum sand casting—all done with tools on a desktop!
Different by Design Mercer Engineering is committed to preparing its graduates for professional practice. It is an exciting time to study and practice engineering and be part of a discipline that brings tremendous benefits to our world. Our labs are busy with design projects and creative innovations on the cutting edge of technology. The key ingredient is the people – faculty, staff, and students, who translate the needs of people into design problems that challenge our skills as engineers. Using prototypes is a natural and appealing design process that enables our students to uncover innovative solutions by manipulating both the software models and physical objects. What begins as an idea and transitions to a 3D object can be accomplished on a desktop. v
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Georgia Tech is Redefining Engineering Education By Gary May, PhD., PE., Dean College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. of students huddled around cars in a shop, but there tends to be a lot more to it than what meets the eye. The students might be members of Solar Racing, an interdisciplinary team committed to developing solarpowered race cars. Or, the vehicles you see might be part of a larger, businessGary S. May is the dean of the College of Engineering at the minded project. With Georgia Institute of Technology and the Southern Company new programs we’ve Chair. Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering is the largest in the developed like CREnation, ranked in the top nationally, and is number one in gradu- ATE-X, designed to ating women and minority engineers. boost entrepreneurial As dean of engineering at Georgia Tech, I confidence, we’re ensuring our students often find that the university's reputation can envision their work in a way that exprecedes us. This can be a tremendous tends beyond the classroom. boon, but it's sometimes discouraging as To put it another way: we’re fusing well. We have long been known for edu- everything you know about engineering cating some of the best engineers around, with everything our students need to stay and while I'm proud of that fact, I've also competitive in today’s workforce: innovafound there are some misconceptions tive ideas, interdisciplinary experience, about the kind of work we do. Engineering entrepreneurial spirit. And it’s not just our is all about stuff like car engines, right? students who are leaders in these areas. People who tinker with appliances for fun. Take, for example, Professor Magnus Bridge-building, wire-soldering, com- Egerstedt of our School of Electrical and puter-modeling. Computer Engineering. He’s long been Well, yes and no. Of course that's all known around the College of Engineering part of the engineering world—and you'll as something of a maverick—someone certainly find it all at Georgia Tech—but who’s always dreaming up new ways of we are also at the forefront of redefining approaching education. A few years ago, what engineering education means in he was a pioneer in the world of massive 2016. That is to say, you’ll still find groups open online courses, giving students
around the world a chance to learn about robot controls under him through an Internet-based class. Now, he’s taking that concept to another level with the Robotarium, a project that aims to reshape not just robotics education but research in the field as well. With robots that can be controlled by anyone in the world, the Robotarium will be a resource for people who don’t have access to the kind of machinery housed at Georgia Tech. Think about the possibilities: students of almost any age could use this as an educational tool, while professors will be able to run tests and conduct research. The Robotarium was Egerstedt’s idea, but he’s already brought a diverse array of fellow faculty members (with backgrounds in fields like mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, and computer science) on board to work with him. And while the full Robotarium is still a few years away, there’s already a starter version of sorts up and running with tiny robots. (Egerstedt enlisted some graduate students to help with testing.) Projects like this are what helps the College of Engineering stand out among the pack. We built our reputation on giving students a solid foundation in engineering basics, and that’s still the core of what we do and excel at. But we aren’t afraid to try novel approaches and embrace new ideas, and that’s what makes Georgia Tech’s engineering programs so exciting. v
The Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering & Information Technology Georgia Southern University The new Department of Manufacturing Engineering welcomed its first cohort of 40 freshman students in fall 2015. The Department currently has one tenuretrack associate professor, one visiting assistant professor, and is in the process of hiring three tenure-track assistant profes16
sors. We are proud to announce that Daniel J. Cox, Ph. D., has accepted the position of founding chair of the department. He is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Florida, where he has taught since 2001. Cox’s research interests include system
dynamics and control, advanced manufacturing, and robotics and automation. Frank Gross, Ph.D., associate dean for research, is serving as interim director for the Center for Innovative Technology, Engineering, and Manufacturing Solutions (CITEMS), the college’s new applied reGEORGIA EnGInEER
the Dzibilchaltun Maya Ruins. They used a laser scanner and a quadricopter, as well as data interpretation, to create a very high precision 3D point-cloud model of the entire temple. www.american-school-search.com/colleges/construction Among the CEIT students search center. Gross has developed sev- who have won prestigious scholarships eral master agreements and contracts for and awards this year are: Martin Muinos, research projects between industry and an M.S.A.E. student, has been awarded a CEIT’s faculty experts. In addition, work is five-year NSF Graduate Research Fellowunderway to design and build a new re- ship. His winning submission was “A search facility on Georgia Southern’s ex- Study of Reactivity-Controlled Comprespansion to the south end of campus. For sion Ignition and Low Temperature Commore information about CITEMS and col- bustion of Biofuels.” Mr. Muinos earned a laborative research with our faculty ex- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from perts, visit ceit.georgiasouthern.edu/ Georgia Southern and is currently a gradCITEMS. uate assistant in the Renewable Energy & American School Search has ranked Engines Laboratory under the direction of Georgia Southern’s Construction Man- Valentin Soloiu, Ph.D. agement program as #20 out of 782 instiA team of IT students in their senior tutions listed. capstone course earned First Place and Gustavo Maldonado, Ph.D., P.E., LEED Best in Show at the Charleston Defense AP, associate professor of Civil Engineer- Contractors Association Student Mobile ing, led a group of 11 undergraduate and App Competition. Shayne Moore, Leslie two graduate students on a fascinating Dykes, Ryan Callahan, Andrew Coleman, study abroad program in conjunction with and James Riley developed Allerg-Ease, the Universidad Anáhuac Mayab in Mex- an app that allows people with food senico in summer 2015. The students learned sitivities to identify safe menu options at modern land surveying techniques, in- six popular restaurant chains. The team cluding laser scanning, and received per- received cash prizes, and the competition mission from the Mexican government to sponsor made a donation to the Departmodel the Temple of the Seven Dolls at ment of Information Technology, which at
the students’ request, will be used to fund an Allerg-Ease scholarship. An 840-mile drive down the coast of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico might sound like a great way to enjoy some sightseeing, but for 13 Georgia Southern students, that drive was dangerous, grueling—and the opportunity of a lifetime. The students are part of the university’s Eagle Motorsports Baja 1000 team, and traveled to Mexico to compete in the second-largest off-road race in the world: the Baja 1000. While there, the studentbased team made history by becoming the first collegiate team to compete in the utility terrain vehicle-specific class, and the first collegiate team to compete in the race in more than three decades. The team, one of three racing teams within Eagle Motorsports, was challenged with rebuilding a brand new utility terrain vehicle (UTV), a two-seat machine with a roll cage, from the ground up to meet SCORE-International requirements. SCORE-International is the governing organization of the off-road race. In addition, the team worked with Hisun Motors to secure a corporate sponsorship, plus numerous other sponsors, to help with the cost of materials and travels to Mexico. They also had to prepare mentally and physically for the rugged 840-mile course. The vehicle (#1952) made it to Route Mile 116.6 of the course on November 20 before crashing after dark into a hidden ravine, which also damaged many other vehicles. v
Kennesaw State Engineering: Dean talks leadership and vision for engineering college By Tiffany Capuano Influential mentors, a strong work ethic,
he oversees nearly 100 faculty in a college
college with new academic degrees, re-
and a consummate faith are what Thomas
with 4,000 students and 20 academic
search opportunities, and collaboration
Currin said has shaped him into the leader
degree programs.
with industry.
he is today.
At Kennesaw State, which consoli-
“When you look at a year ago and
As the dean of Kennesaw State Uni-
dated with Southern Polytechnic State
today, we really haven’t changed all that
versity’s Southern Polytechnic College of
University in 2015, Currin is hard at work,
much with respect to what and how we
Engineering and Engineering Technology,
expanding the ever-growing engineering
teach. However, to the 18-year old trying
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Photo by David Caselli
to decide where to go to college, we’ve changed a lot,” Currin said about the consolidation. “We aren’t a little school anymore. We’re a big school, and that visibility is a huge plus when it comes to recruitment and research opportunities.” Consolidation may have expanded the college’s opportunities, but Currin and the engineering faculty were intent on maintaining the college’s high academic rigor throughout the curriculum. ABET recently re-accredited the college’s engineering technology programs, some of which have been accredited since 1973, when the first engineering technology programs were offered at the Marietta Campus. “Earning this reaccreditation during one of the most significant changes in the university’s history is a great achievement,” Currin said. “It also provides the external validation that affirms we are doing what is necessary to support our students and programs in the engineering college.” From the traditional Pumpkin Launch for first-year students to designing computer-based HitchBOTs that make their way across campus to supporting engineering projects at Georgia engineering firms, Kennesaw State students gain practical experience both inside and outside of the classroom. Students’ projects showcase ingenuity that stems from the college’s projectbased learning philosophy. Driverless 18
cars, self-tuning guitars, and drones that collect tornado data are just some of the projects that students created while at Kennesaw State. Outside of the classroom, students have their pick of more than a dozen engineering student competition teams to participate in, including underwater autonomous vehicles, steel bridge, concrete canoe, and Formula SAE, which prepares them for the engineering and business aspects in the real-world environment. Currin, who became founding dean of the engineering college at SPSU in 2006, is most proud to hear the feedback he gets from companies about the college’s engineering graduates. “They say that our graduates really understand what they do,” said Currin. About 93 percent of KSU’s engineering graduates head to the workforce immediately after graduation. While the focus is, and continues to be, on students and putting graduates to work, Currin understands the engineering workforce and brings that element into the college’s curriculum. “Engineers are working in management positions, but they are often the only ones with an engineering background,” Currin said. “You don’t sit in a room with a bunch of engineers and just do engineering. “I’ve always said the best engineers are those that can teach. Because that’s a lot of what you do as an engineer: you teach people who are non-engineers what you are trying to do and why it’s a good idea.” To meet the ever-changing needs of Georgia’s industry, Currin recently cre-
ated a new bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, an online Master of Science in Applied Engineering, and plans to offer a doctorate in engineering in the future. The doctorate of engineering, along with Kennesaw State’s more interdisciplinary master’s degrees, will focus on the practice of engineering rather than solely research, which are needed in the state, Currin explained. The Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology has a long history of providing Georgia’s economy with engineering professionals who understand the business, and Currin intends to build on what the college has done in the past. Engineering excellence at Kennesaw State begins with the educational foundation provided by the college’s engineering faculty, who are experienced practitioners, knowledgeable professional engineers (PE), and dedicated educators. They bring their industry expertise into the university’s classrooms, research centers and state-of-the-art laboratories. Their expertise in niche areas such as nuclear engineering, mechatronics, renewable energy, and 3D design is attracting a growing number of students, including more female engineering students. By leading students in their academic journeys, Kennesaw State’s engineering professors are educating and influencing the newest and most diverse generation of engineers. Students learn the components of engineering excellence—the ability to problem-solve and face real-world engineering challenges from both technical and managerial perspectives. For Currin, he leads his college and his life by encouraging others—his students, faculty and alumni—to “be bold and courageous.” “There is nothing more important that we do than teach our students. And that is the sentiment throughout the whole college,” Currin said. “That’s who we are. That’s who we’ll continue to be.”v GEORGIA EnGInEER
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GEORGIA EnGInEER
ENGINEERS of
Georgia Engineer of the Year Thomas Currin Thomas Currin is dean of Kennesaw State University’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, the second largest engineering college in Georgia. Located at KSU’s Marietta Campus, Currin oversees nearly 100 faculty in a college with nearly 4,000 students and 20 academic degree programs. He has been instrumental in the consolidation of Kennesaw State and Southern Polytechnic State last year, which brought the engineering discipline to Kennesaw State. His leadership role is focused on growing new engineering programs for the college, most recently with the approval of a new bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, and preparing the next generation of engineers. Currin earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Southeastern Massachusetts University in 1972, then honorably served in the United States Army for three years before he enrolled in graduate school at North Carolina State University – Raleigh. Knowing he wanted to teach engiFEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
neering as a future career, Currin completed both engineering and secondary education courses, studying various teaching methodologies and philosophies. He completed his master’s degree in civil engineering in 1977. Currin entered the workforce rather than a doctorate program, under the advice of his academic mentors, in order to understand engineering firsthand. He successfully launched his consulting engineering career, and later earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1988. He specialized in traffic engineering, with projects focused on the analysis and design of numerous transportation projects throughout New England and the East Coast, as well as the evaluation of
traffic impact. After a decade-long career in transportation engineering, Currin joined higher education 28 years ago, and was hired in 1991 by then Southern College of Technology in the institution’s civil engineering technology program. He became founding dean of engineering at SPSU in 2006. While teaching, Currin served as an evaluator and commissioner of ABET, the primary accreditation agency for engineering in the U.S., and has authored numerous engineering education articles for publications and presentations. He also holds professional engineering licenses in several states, including Massachusetts and Georgia. Currin resides in Marietta. v 21
Georgia Engineer of the Year in Education Jason Christian
the next generation of engineers. Christian says his struggles as a young engineer are not unique, and he draws on his own tumultuous experience to guide his instruction. Now an assistant professor in the
Looking back on his transition from engineering student to junior engineer in a private practice, Jason Christian admits he was overwhelmed. While he believes his undergraduate courses prepared him for the technical challenges of the engineering profession, he was not ready for the complexity of the engineeremployer relationship. “Frankly, being a staff engineer at an engineering firm is not the same thing as being an engineering student,” said Christian. After bouncing between three firms in the first five years of his professional career, Christian says the close mentorship of a senior engineer allowed him to reset his expectations of the workplace. Christian went on to a 20year career in engineering consulting that included a stint as president of his own firm. Christian’s ultimate professional success led to a new career in academia where he “finds great honor” in preparing
University of Georgia College of Engineering, Christian has been named the 2016 Engineer of the Year in Education by the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers. “I was overwhelmed simply by being nominated,” said Christian. “To have colleagues who don’t know me personally recognize the value of my work at UGA is a huge honor.” Christian believes the award also demonstrates the approach he and his colleagues in the UGA College of Engineering are taking resonates with engineers and educators. “We provide a tremendous senior capstone design experience for our students,” explained Christian. “It’s exciting to take a required academic course and transform it into a dynamic experience for students.” As with most engineering capstone courses taught elsewhere, UGA students solve the technical components of their design projects, learn how to manage
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time and other resources, develop communications skills, and learn to work cooperatively with peers. Christian says the design courses he leads in environmental engineering at UGA are unique because he also helps students develop confidence in their individual abilities, create strategies to cope with professional and personal stress, understand their role in the workplace, and build reasonable expectations for their early careers. “We accomplish these goals through a series of open and honest class discussions about being mentally and emotionally prepared for the transition into the workplace,” explained Christian. “I help students identify strategies to cope with life’s stresses, embrace lifelong learning, understand the interdisciplinary nature of current and future engineering problems, and develop their entrepreneurial instincts.” To enhance the collaborative nature of this multi-disciplinary course, Christian co-teaches the class with Stephan Durham, an associate professor and coordinator of the college’s civil engineering program. The capstone senior design courses are the last, best opportunity to reach students before they leave campus, according to Christian. “It’s critically important to address the whole individual and provide our soon-to-be graduates with the technical, intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal tools required to practice engineering successfully,” he said. “Our students eagerly engage in this unique capstone course structure, and I have every confidence they leave campus well prepared to be effective, productive, confident, competent, and happy in their new careers.” Christian will be recognized as 2016 Engineer of the Year in Education at the annual Engineers Week Awards Gala on Feb. 13 at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta. v GEORGIA EnGInEER
Georgia Engineering Student of the Year Valerie Washington
Outside of the classroom, Washington is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), and the Institute for Industrial Engineers (IIE), and was recognized as Kennesaw State’s Systems and Industrial Engineering Student of the Year for 201415. Washington is also the founding president of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), Atlanta Chapter Student Division. Her experience as a research assistant has led Washington to consider obtaining a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a research focus on Environmental Management and Optimization. v
ENGINEERS Valerie Washington is an Industrial and Systems Engineering student at Kennesaw State University. Interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) from a young age, Washington originally wanted to pursue a career in marine biology and mathematics. During high school, she was involved in her high school’s robotics clubs and shadowed two interns working in the field, which is how she decided to major in industrial and systems engineering at KSU’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. Since beginning her undergraduate studies, Washington has been actively involved, serving as an undergraduate research assistant and teaching assistant. Currently, she is researching ways to make the use of connected fitness tracking devices easier and more effective. This, in turn, has the potential to significantly improve users’ overall health. FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
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Georgia Engineering Technology Student of the Year Kurt Jacobson Kurt Jacobson is a senior at Kennesaw State University’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. As a Mechanical Engineering Technology major, the Atlanta native has been interested in the industrial arts and engineering from an early age. Jacobson was homeschooled through high school, which gave him a firm foundation in math and science, and allowed him opportunity to pursue his love of making things with
his hands. By age 12, Jacobson asked his parents if he could set up a small workshop in their garage. That shop has expanded to include a mezzanine level and contains a cabinet shop, machine tools, a foundry, and chemistry and electronics lab equipment. At Kennesaw State, Jacobson maintains a 4.0 GPA and is known among his classmates for his versatile hands-on skills and willingness to help others understand theoretical concepts. In 2014, Jacobson, whose grandfathers worked at the Los Alamos National Lab, decided to pursue a nuclear engineering minor. He now serves as vice president of the Kennesaw State Nuclear Society and is a student assistant in the Center for Nuclear Studies. He also works as a supplemental instruction leader for more than 70 students taking the Strength of Materials course. For a recent machine design project, Jacobson worked with the owner of Tubular Fabrication LLC to develop and build a large capacity CNC tubing notcher and control software. After graduation in fall 2016, Jacobson hopes to land a job in the nuclear or manufacturing industry, but plans to continue designing and making mechanical devices. v 23
Rudolph bonapaRte Geosyntec’s Chairman, President, and CEO By Daniel Simmons | Staff Writer
f you pay attention to your local engineering associations, then you’re probably aware that these early months of the new year are awards season. Most associations like to select outstanding projects and engineers to be recognized by their industry and, as we make our way into the early parts of 2016, we get to find out which people and projects stood out the most from all of 2015. Now, if you happened to be paying careful attention, you may have noticed that a certain name has shown up more than once in this particular round of accoladegiving: Geosyntec Consultants Inc. For starters, Geosyntec’s Chairman, President, and CEO, Rudolph Bonaparte, was one of only five out of 150,000 members of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to receive their prestigious OPAL (Outstanding Projects and Leaders) Award, which is reserved for those deemed to have “demonstrated outstanding lifetime achievement, leadership, and a long-term commitment to excellence.” Additionally, Geosyntec’s recent work in preserving Elba Island’s salt marshes has earned them an Excellence in Engineering Award from ACEC|Georgia and the firm’s work in the environmental remediation of Mahogany Mill Historic Park in Pensacola, Florida landed them yet another award from the 24
Partners for Environmental Progress. This is all from 2015 alone. So, on the occasion of this phenomenal year for Geosyntec, we spoke with Dr. Bonaparte, their President and CEO for the past 20 years, and asked him a few questions about how he leads the firm. Today, Geosyntec has about 1,200 employees in more than 50 U.S. offices and in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and Malaysia. The firm has more than 120 employees in the greater Atlanta area, with its regional operations led by Todd Hagemeyer and Dr. Majdi Othman. The company’s practice focus is on the environment, water and natural resources, the built infrastructure, and natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, landslides, floods). It’s clear that Geosyntec has positioned itself in such a way that it has become a breeding ground for new ideas and high-performing projects, and we were very interested to shed some light on how the firm (as well as its CEO) conducts itself to bring about such an outcome. Dr. Bonaparte has been with Geosyntec for nearly 30 years. In addition to his recent OPAL recognition, in 2004 he was named Engineer of the Year by Georgia Engineering Alliance and in 2007 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on an engineer in the United States. GEORGIA EnGInEER
Bonaparte:
Can you tell us a little bit about your history with Geosyntec? How and when did you join the firm?
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The founder of our firm was a Frenchman by the name of Jean-Pierre (J.P.) Giroud. Dr. Giroud was a professor for many years in geotechnical engineering at the University of Grenoble in France. In the late 1970s, he left academia, moved to the U.S., and began working for Woodward Clyde Consultants in Chicago. In 1982, when I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, I went to work for Woodward Clyde, but in their San Francisco office. Not too long thereafter, I was asked to go to Chicago to work with J.P. He had a client, Gulf Oil Company, now part of Chevron, that had bought the patents for a new type of engineering material called Tensar Geogrids. This material, revolutionary at the time, is used to strengthen earthen structures, such as embankment dams, building foundations, retaining walls, and road subgrades. We were tasked with developing design methods so that engineers could use this new material in their projects.
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Here’s the funny part of the story. In late 1983, Gulf asked me to join their new Tensar start-up to be located in Atlanta. I went to J.P. to tell him that I was resigning, fearful that he would become angry towards me. But he wasn’t angry. He said “Rudy, that’s a very good move at this stage in your career. You’re two years out of school, go try something different!” And then he said something that surprised me, “In a few days, I’m going to be resigning from Woodward Clyde. You know, I’ve been a professor all my life and I can’t work in this big company anymore. I’m going to move to Florida to start my own firm focused on specialty geotechnical engineering.” And I replied: “J.P., that’s wonderful! In my new position, I control a substantial research and development budget. I will buy half of your time for the next two years, I’ll be your first client, and we will continue to work together!” So, J.P. started Geosyntec, and I was his first client. After three years at Tensar, I wanted to get back into the engineering consulting business. I joined Geosyntec in 1986. The company had only five or six employees at the time. In 1988, I founded Geosyntec’s Atlanta office along with Jay Beech, Beth Gross, and Jon Dickinson, all of whom are still with the firm. As an aside, Woodward Clyde was a very fine company founded as a geotech26
nical practice. In 1997, they were acquired by URS, who was then acquired in 2014 by AECOM, creating an industry behemoth. Many of your readers may also remember Law Engineering, another firm founded as a geotechnical practice. A venerable company headquartered in Atlanta, they were acquired by MACTEC in 2002, who in turn was acquired by AMEC in 2011. Needless to say, we work in a competitive, dynamic market environment.
You have a unique philosophy when it comes to personnel and hiring the right people. Can you tell us a bit about that? Bonaparte: One of the things that I deeply believe in, and people that are attracted to the firm believe in, is that we want to work with and be surrounded by really smart, energetic, collaborative, and genuinely nice people. The leaders of our firm, to a person, want to attract and work with people that are as good as or better than they are. Many company’s profess this philosophy, but don’t achieve it. You can say it all you want to, you can talk the talk, but if you are going to walk the walk you have to create an environment where people truly feel as if they’re treated equally and with respect. Everyone has got
to believe that they can succeed and achieve their career potential based on their efforts and contributions. We’ve achieved that, I believe, more than most firms. We have a very collaborative and inclusive working environment. This philosophy has allowed us to recruit and retain really exceptional employees. I like to say that we have the highest “people quality quotient” in the industry and I believe it is true. Another part of our philosophy is to be 100 percent employee-owned. Of our 1,200 employees, more than 400 are owners of the firm. The largest shareholder in our firm owns less than 5 percent of the company. So, our ownership is broadly distributed amongst our employees. When the firm does well, everyone benefits. I believe this is motivating to our staff. The third part of our philosophy I will mention is our commitment to intergenerational business sustainability. Everything we do is designed to help us be successful, not only tomorrow, but a decade from now. We are always working to innovate, reinvent our practices, build better internal systems and processes, recruit exceptional recent graduates and early career professionals, build our R&D and university connections, and push career growth, management succession, and ownership transition.
It’s difficult to always hire the right person. How do you sense whether an employee or a scientist will ultimately fit into the culture that you’ve created so successfully? Bonaparte:
Recruiting is one of the most challenging things that we do. It is perplexing that even after all these years, we still don’t always get it right. We review a resume, check references, and conduct an in-depth interview. You would think that after such a detailed process your success rate in selecting people that meet GEORGIA EnGInEER
your expectations be 100 percent. But our success rate is well below that. We humans are a complex species and often difficult to truly understand. I think many interviewers and interviewees see what they want to see in each other and often shy away from the difficult discussion topics that would better reveal ‘goodness of fit’ during the recruiting process. Recognizing these challenges, and our imperfect track record, we have been working for a number of years now to improve, with the goal of more consistently achieving the outcomes we hope for. I will mention ‘team recruiting’ as one process improvement that has served us well.
Bonaparte: We believe that nurturing close relationships with the university community is a way for us to give back in society while at the same time building faculty connections that help in recruiting top graduates and in being first-to-field with the engineering and science breakthroughs developed on America’s campuses. Not surprisingly then, we do have a significant number of staff that are
teaching classes in engineering and science programs throughout the U.S. or otherwise contributing to academic programs by sitting on advisory committees or involving themselves in other campus activities. I will include myself in that group as I had the good fortune this past fall to co-teach a class at Georgia Tech on engineering leadership and management and I presently sit on
About 15-20 of your employees are actively teaching at universities throughout the US. How does this factor into their position at Geosyntec? Is this part of their employment?
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the Advisory Council for the CEE Department at my alma mater, U.C. Berkeley. These teaching assignments by our employees are self-initiated and almost always pro bono. They are not compensated by the university nor is there special compensation from Geosyntec. They are, for the most part, labors of love. Our employees do their teaching on top of all of their responsibilities at Geosyntec. I’ve been asked if these academic activities get in the way of the employee’s work responsibilities. The answer is no. These are committed, hardworking individuals that know how to get the job done.
All of these questions about personnel really seem to revolve around corporate culture and strategy; how would you describe your corporate culture and your business strategy? Bonaparte: Our corporate culture is a reflection of the collective behaviors and actions of our employees over the past 30 years. I would describe it as collegial, collaborative, respectful, hard-working, driven to be technically excellent, practicecentered, and highly-focused on doing a great job for our clients. When we talk about corporate strategy, we think about an outward looking component: for example, the marketplace, 28
our competitors, and our clients. We also have an inward looking component: focused on developing our technology base and practice capabilities, defining and developing competitive differentiators, streamlining our project delivery processes, improving our business development processes (which are centered on the traditional consulting ‘seller-does’ model), increasing our internal training and professional development programs, emphasizing the leadership roles and responsibilities of our senior personnel, creating the business infrastructure to support the firm’s organic growth, which has averaged about 10 percent per year, and achieving our goals for intergenerational business sustainability. In terms of an outward look, I see a marketplace that’s very dynamic, and evolving at a rapid pace. On the business front, there’s a lot of merger and acquisition activity, and our industry is consolidating. I have already mentioned AECOM and AMEC, and these two firms are by no means alone in being active with respect to M&A. As a consequence of all of this activity, the marketplace is losing many long-time, higher-end, traditional consultants. Counter to this trend, we believe there is room in the market for accomplished technical consultants that focus on addressing not necessarily their client’s largest or most common projects, but instead their most complex and difficult ones. We like to say that our mission is to help our clients with the problems that
keep them awake at night. I believe that there will always be a need for that type of consulting service. At the same time, we need to recognize that such a business is simply not scalable in the same way that an AECOM, AMEC, CH2M, or Arcadis is scalable. But we don’t aspire for that scale. What we’ve learned over the last 30 years is how to build best-in-class practice capabilities, and we have now done that in five or six specific areas. We believe that if we can continue to be a best-in-class service provider in those areas and, little by little, find adjacent areas of the marketplace where we can build new capabilities to be best-in-class, then we’ll have a business that is unique to us, is differentiated in the marketplace, and whose capabilities will continue to be in demand by good clients. We believe that we can continue to operate this way through at least the next generation of leadership of the company, the group that will be leading the company when I no longer am. Stated a little differently, I think that the larger firms in our industry are, in general, moving away from the higher-end consulting practice portion of the market, and that’s a good thing for us. We continue to be true to what we’ve learned to do and what we have been doing for more than 30 years. Our model is not easy to duplicate. There are barriers to entry for other firms into our style of business. We have learned to leverage R&D, develop a strong internal culture of technical excellence and innovation, build internal learning communities and knowledge centers, recruit people who fit well into our plan, and package it all together in a way that is really helpful to our clients. It would be a challenge for a firm not experienced in our approach to just jump in and start doing it. Conversely, I could never be the CEO whose mission it is to build the next AECOM because I wouldn’t know how to do it; I don’t have the personal attributes nor the types of skills and capabilities needed to do it and I don’t have years of experience building that type of business. GEORGIA EnGInEER
Before we wrap up, let’s talk a bit about your plans for the future. You have a number of international operations (with offices in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and Malaysia). Do you have plans to go further and expand more? How far do you see yourself expanding? Bonaparte: We are taking a very cautious approach to becoming a more international firm. As an employee-owned company without any external debt or equity, any decision that we make to expand internationally is also a decision to invest the savings of our employee shareholders in the international marketplace. We take a very cautious approach to such investments. For a firm with our financial capacity and reach, the risks of aggressive international expansion are considerable. To date, we have focused mostly on English speaking countries where we feel that we understand the business culture, economic and legal systems, social culture, and risks. These are countries where, before expansion, we already had professional colleagues with whom we had worked collaboratively on various projects. So, we already had professional and client networks in these countries before we opened any offices. In Malaysia, we followed a major
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multinational client who had substantial environmental liabilities and looked to us to help them over a period of 15 years. Our relationship with the client was so strong that we served not only as their design engineer, but also as their strategic advisor and at-risk construction manager. The work we’ve performed in Malaysia represents the largest single project ever un-
protection, payment risk, corruption, and safety issues. In deciding where to invest next, the litmus test we apply is this: “Is this the best and highest use of our limited resources?” There are lots of opportunities out there, but are these the best uses of our time, our talent, and our shareholders’ money. And, by that test, the BRIC countries haven’t yet risen to the top. Our lim-
Blue Ridge Dam
dertaken by our firm. It has been a very good experience for us. We have also had internal discussions about expanding into the BRIC countries. We have a number of very capable employees that have a desire to see us do more work in China and Brazil. But we haven’t yet gotten comfortable with a significant China or Brazil investment due to our lack of understanding of business practices and risks in those countries, and language and cultural challenges. The risks include, as examples, intellectual property
ited experiences in BRIC have been mostly as a result of following our U.S. clients when they have projects in those countries, or working as a subconsultant to a larger U.S. engineering firm with more international experience. Perhaps over time, we will feel better equipped to establish operations in China and Brazil. In the meantime, our international focus is on further building our current international operations, and on measured, incremental advancements in Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia. v
GEORGIA EnGInEER
PRESIDEnT AnD CEO OF GEOSYnTEC COnSUlTAnTS TO RECEIvE OPAl AwARD Rudolph Bonaparte, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, NAE, president, CEO and principal of Geosyntec Consultants in Atlanta, will be honored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of five 2016 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) leadership award winners. Bonaparte is being honored for design. He will receive the award March 17, 2016, during ASCE’s annual OPAL Gala in Arlington, Virginia. Bonaparte has extensive experience in the siting, design, permitting, construction, and closure of municipal, hazardous, and radioactive waste landfills and liquid impoundments. He is regarded as a national leader in the design and performance evaluation of waste-containment systems for all types of solid waste landfills. He has directed, managed, and served as engineer-of-record on numerous projects for many public- and private-sector clients. He has also conducted extensive research on these systems on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Bonaparte considers the big picture as he designs and executes municipal, hazardous, and radioactive-waste landfills and liquid impoundments. His success comes from his innovative thinking and ability to translate those ideas into extraordinary projects,” said Mark W. Woodson, P.E., F.ASCE, president of ASCE. Prior to his nearly 30-year tenure at Geosyntec Consultants, Bonaparte worked with The Tensar Corporation in Morrow, Georgia, as an applications technology manager, and Woodward-Clyde Consultants in San Francisco as an assistant project engineer. Among his many professional awards and honors, Bonaparte was a charter member of the University of California, Berkeley Civil and Environmental Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni, he was the 2000 recipient of the ASCE James R. Croes Medal, and he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2007. Bonaparte holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society.For more information, visit www.asce.org. v
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PROJECTS of
Keeping natural gas flowing to Georgia – The Elba Island Salt Marsh Restoration Project was a critical path project in order to maintain operations at the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Elba Island owned and operated by Southern LNG Company, LLC (SLNG), a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan. Geosyntec Consultants (Geosyntec) of Atlanta has received an Engineering Excellence award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia and the Georgia Engineering Alliance for the successful and innovative engineering design for the Elba Island Salt Marsh Restoration Project. The restoration of 1.9 acres of historical salt marsh and 2.5 acre upland buffer was necessary not only for the continued operation of the facility but has proved to be a benefit to SLNG for the future expansion of the terminal to liquefy domestic natural gas for export. Elba Island (780 acres) is located in the Lower Savannah River Harbor approximately five miles east of Savannah, Georgia. To support continued operations and allow for LNG deliveries, approximately 1.25 million cubic yards of maintenance dredging is permitted annually to maintain SLNG’s marine berth and ship turning basin in the Savannah River. The receiving point for this dredge material is an approximately 240-acre upland dredge material containment area (DMCA).
Since 1998, Geosyntec has provided the geotechnical engineering for the DMCA management, which requires periodic dike raisings to create additional storage for annual dredge material disposal. In 2006, preparation began for the next dike raising, which would require a significant lateral expansion to maintain geotechnical integrity of the exterior dikes along the south and east side of the DMCA. By 2011, environmental permits were still in limbo because mitigation options for impacts to the tidally influenced ditch surrounding the DMCA were not materializing into viable options. With the southern DMCA nearly full, Geosyntec proposed an innovative plan to provide the required mitigation on Elba Island by restoring a historical salt marsh that currently lies under three to five feet of
historical dredge spoils from the 1940s and 1950s. To do this, Geosyntec approached the federal and state regulatory agencies with an established scientific assessment methodology as the framework upon which a novel calculation methodology was developed for sizing the salt marsh restoration to equal the functional capacity of the tidal ditch to be filled. The agencies ultimately approved the methodology, and in August 2013, the construction of the Elba Island Salt Marsh Restoration Project was successfully completed. To further protect and enhance the restored marsh, SLNG restored a 2.5acre 50-foot wide upland buffer parallel to the restored marsh, which was 2,200 feet in length (longer than six football fields). One year after completion of construction, the project was already meet-
ing its five-year performance measures, which exceeded everyone’s expectations including those of SLNG, Geosyntec, and the regulatory agencies. Further, the federal and State regulatory community, having seen the project’s success first-hand, endorsed Geosyntec’s assessment and design methodology and have called it a ‘model’ for other salt marsh restoration projects in Georgia. The success of the restored marsh establishing so quickly and performing at the five-year performance goals affirmed the successful approach of the multidisciplinary team’s concept that ‘process defines form and function.’ The Geosyntec team dedicated the time needed to understanding this unique ecological resource and the natural processes that create sustainable ecological conditions. v
OneNYC Retail Waterfront Emerges from Solid Waste | Brooklyn, New York ACEC of NY Diamond Award recipient, this project transformed an historic solidwaste landfill on a blighted, 10.6-acre peninsula in Lower NY Bay into an appealing retail center, waterfront esplanade, and park. Project highlights included shoreline restoration, peninsula stabilization, ‘hot spot’ remediation, underground storage tank closures, and installation of engineering controls. Paramount to the success of the project was a Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) allowing Thor Equities (Developer) to process solid waste resulting in a ‘cut and fill’ project. Prior to solid waste excavation, screening, and processing, 6,000 CY were surgically removed and remediated from seventeen ‘hot-spots.’ As the remediation engineer, GZA petitioned the regulatory agency to modify the BUD and allow the on-site crushing and recycling of concrete resulting in net disposal savings of $750K. Superstorm Sandy inundated the site within the coastal erosion hazard area. The Developer restored the eroded shoreline, and new riprap/gabion structures stabilized the site. 34
Engineering controls in the building include passive methane and hydrogen sulfide monitoring systems, and a passive sub-slab depressurization system (SSDS) that could be retrofit into an active SSDS, if necessary. GZA submitted a report and obtained agency approval allowing the developer to secure a CO. This project revitalized a dilapidated
peninsula into an alluring retail center featuring a park and waterfront esplanade with breathtaking sunsets and spectacular views of Lower NY Bay. The project incorporated engineering controls into the building to create a sustainable waterfront destination protective of human health and the environment. v GEORGIA EnGInEER
Tower 55 Multimodal Improvement Project Receives Coveted Hay Award The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association recognized the Union Pacific and BNSF Railway Tower 55 Multimodal Improvement Project in Fort Worth, Texas with the coveted Dr. W. W. Hay Award for Excellence for outstanding achievement in railway engineering. Named to honor the memory and accomplishments of AREMA member and leader William Walter Hay, the annual award honors one project for innovation, safety and service, performance, and reliability. Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway joined forces as part of a publicprivate partnership to develop the $114.5-million project, which alleviated congestion at one of North America’s busiest rail intersections. The confluence of five major freight and passenger rail routes brings more than 100 trains through the Tower 55 interlocker daily. HDR helped the railroads, North Central Texas Council of Governments, Texas Department of Transportation, and the city of Fort Worth with innovative surface improvements. As the engineer of record, the team employed advanced modeling and economic analysis to FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
demonstrate public benefits and help secure Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II Grant funding. The project returned $1.1 billion in public benefits, including $30 for every federal dollar invested. These improvements allow 40 percent more rail traffic to traverse Tower 55, avoiding $996 million in additional supply chain costs. Eliminating at-grade crossings improves safety and is forecast to reduce motorist
and pedestrian delays by 100,000 hours annually. The project enables reduced carbon dioxide emissions of more than 93,000 tons per year and lowers fuel consumption by 22,600 gallons per day. “This project epitomizes how collaboration among multiple stakeholders, railroads, and industry experts creates a nationally significant outcome and positively impacts quality of life for all of us,” said Scott Goehri, P.E., ENV SP, HDR’s freight rail director. v 35
The Pursuit of Excellence – A Hardscrabble Effort Roger Singleton –Founder of Silt Saver Inc. Over the past 15 years, Silt Saver has designed many sediment control products for specific jobsite uses resulting in 11 patents for sediment control. Most of these products have never surfaced in Georgia due to the Dummy Down approval process, a process that requires new products, designed for performance and measured by results, to meet the old material specifications of the past. One product that I would like to point out is the Belted Silt Retention Fence system (BSRF), developed by Silt Saver in 2004. This was the first silt fence system submitted for the approval of GDOT as an alternate system to Wire and steel post. UGA did our testing prior to submittal, comparing Silt Saver (BSRF) to a standard Type C Fabric presently listed on the GDOT qualified products list. BSRF was proven to have better flow rates under slurry conditions with less soil loss. The structural integrity of the system was later confirmed by UGA and followed with a 30 month picture history on a 2-1 slope, under full loads. The 30 month history recorded no failure on wood post. This product did not meet the material specifications adopted by GDOT at the time and was ‘Rejected.’ BSRF has now moved on to be approved as an equal to the wire and steel post system in several states, and is specified for use in the Everglades. In 2012, Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission contracted with TRI/Environmental, a recognized national storm water testing facility, to conduct full scale performance and soil loss test on 11 different silt fences. BRSF was found to have best overall performance results and less soil loss than all others tested. These test results were later over-ruled by political pressure. Performance and efficiency results of these test were passed over in favor of the existing material specifications of the past. As a result of these tests and the battle that followed, we now have two approved product lists, one for products approved by GDOT, and one for the 36
private sector approved by GSWCC. BSRF is presently listed in the GSWCC 6th Edition Green Book approved products list for 2016. BSRF use on GDOT projects is still ‘Rejected.’ The present use of two different, approved product list in Georgia is confusing and undermines the overall effort of clean water for us all. Elsewhere in 2015, the pipeline industry used over 3,000,000 linear ft. of BSRF, not because it’s cheap, but because it solves their sediment control problems. Products used in the pipeline industry are required to meet the standards of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In 2013, we submitted a new concept of woven silt fence to GDOT for their evaluation and approval. This fabric is actually designed to address the distinctive performance requirements of a vertical interceptor of sediment. Remember that, early on, all fabrics used as silt fence were originally designed as ground stabilization fabric or paving underlayment. In the early ’80s, these fabrics were taken for use as a silt fence and material specifications were written into the manuals. New silt fence products, submitted today, are actually tested for compliance to material specifi-
cations that have not changed in 25 years. Silt Saver decided to take all the issues that contribute to failure of silt fence and address each of these with the first woven fabric specifically designed for the purpose of vertical sediment control. Flow, efficiency, method of attachment, linear strength, pooling of water, and the issues of hydrostatic pressure are all taken into consideration. This System, Staged Release Silt Fence (SRSF) consist of four vertical stages in order to release the top clean water of each rainfall event. Two different sieves were incorporated into the weave in order to achieve efficiency and flow. The fabric properties are: The first 8 inches of fabric above ground is sieve Number 40 = 141 GPM/ft2, second stage = Sieve Number 20 = 210 GPM/ft2, a third stage=Sieve Number 20 = 235 GPM/ft2 and a fourth stage =Sieve Number 20 =324GPM/ft2, the top five inches is of high visibility green fabric, for delineation of the jobsite, without the cost duplication of barrier fence. Between each of the stages is a 1/2 band that is tightly woven, adding 350 lbs. of linear strength each. This fabric is bonded to oak post (1 1/4x1 3/4) with a 3/8 x 1” x24” bonding strip. GEORGIA EnGInEER
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The principle behind the design is thru controlled release, allowing the top clean water of each rainfall event to bleed thru each stage as pooling occurs. Hydrostatic pressure that contributes to undermining or total system failure will be reduced as water is allowed to pass thru the fabric near the top and run down the back side. This method will also reduce the scouring that would normally occur with the traditional system, if water should over-top. The added horizontal bands give additional linear strength and structural attachment points without additional netting or wire. After two years at GDOT Office of Materials and Testing, this product was also ‘Rejected.’ When asked for the
reason for the rejection, it was stated that the SRSF fabric did not meet the Sieve No.30 as required in the present silt fence material specifications. New products designed to meet the clean water requirements of today should not be held back due to the outdated, untested, material specifications of yesterday. Our industry, and yours, depend on knowledge that is acquired thru experience and advanced testing. All products should be tested for the ability to do a specific job. Performance values should be measured, and results recorded. With this information, the design community can actually design the E&S Plan with ex-
pected results. Recorded results will allow the consumer to know what level of performance to expect of a product, prior to the purchase. A bag of seed has a tag to tell you what’s in the bag. Why do we not require performance labeling of sediment control products? The biggest obstacles facing the advancement of performance based products in our industry is political influence and the Dummy Down mentality of individuals who evaluate our products. Their individual opinion often comes without supporting merit and can greatly influence the goal of all who pursue excellence. v
HNTB wins mega CEI segment as part of even larger P3 effort HNTB wins mega CEI segment as part of even larger P3 effort. HNTB is part of the ACS/Macquarie/Dragados Partnership that was selected for the Interstate 595 Managed Lanes project by the Florida Department of Transportation. HNTB will provide engineering services for this mega contract. The overall project will reconstruct and add toll lanes to the existing interstate, and it will be financed and constructed under a public-private partnership agreement. Estimated to cost $1.2 billion, the entire P3 is one of the largest such contracts in the country, and is being hailed as the model for future P3 procurements. The 10.5-mile corridor will improve I-595 between I-75 and I-95 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. According to Jose De Almagro, project champion and ACS client service leader, the win is the result of strong collaboration and the joint efforts of the Corporate Ventures and Southeast divisions. Our relationship with ACS positioned us to serve as a preferred provider for this prominent assignment, he said. HNTB has gained a preferredprovider position based on outstanding performance on previous work for FDOT. ACS recognized the value we bring to the P3 program and approached us with the idea of partnering on this new contract, De Almagro said. This win reinforces 38
HNTB’s preeminence in the P3 market. Florida is among a handful of states at the forefront of using P3 solutions, a concept that involves the unique partnering of public and private entities to accelerate the development, finance, and delivery of
transportation infrastructure. The P3 enables Florida to use innovative finance mechanisms and private capital to help deliver critical projects that may not have been possible through other approaches. v GEORGIA EnGInEER
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MidAmerican Energy Company (MEC) projects MVP-3 and MVP-4 This is an abbreviated article that appears on the GRL January newsletter, by Danny Belardo and Travis Coleman, GRL Engineers, Inc. and Neil Russo, EC Source Services. In the electrical power transmission industry, Multi-Value Projects (MVP) are large, strategically planned projects that provide regional benefits through upgrades to the electrical transmission infrastructure. The MidAmerican Energy Company projects MVP-3 and MVP-4 construct or upgrade four electrical substations, upgrade existing 161kV transmission lines, and add new 345kV lines across the state of Iowa. These projects total approximately 191 miles of upgraded or new lines, allowing the grid to transmit additional energy, including from renewable wind sources. A total of 1,068 new drilled shaft foundations will be completed over the 2 1/2 year project to support the transmission line towers. Towers include tangent structures (located along straight portions and designed for wind and dead weight loads) and dead-end structures (larger towers located where a transmission line ends or turns at a very wide angle and designed for significantly higher loads, including high lateral loads). EC Source Services provides engineering, procurement, and construction services for these projects. The project QA/QC originally required Cross Hole Sonic Logging (CSL) with confirmation from Pulse Echo Pile Integrity Tests (PIT) on these shafts. (CSL assesses concrete integrity using sonic waves that travel between transmitter and receiver probes inserted in parallel tubes pre-installed in the shafts. It cannot assess the concrete cover outside the reinforcing cage. Pulse Echo integrity tests evaluate integrity based on reflections from a stress wave created by the impact of a hand held hammer. In some situations it has depth limitations.) However, CSL had yielded false positives in some shafts, which led to coring and coring costs of US$5 to 10K per shaft. Thermal Integrity Profiling using the Thermal WireÂŽ method, was presented as 40
10 ft Diameter Reinforcing Cage for Critical High load Structure an alternative due to the fast analysis turn-around time (one to 3 days versus up to 7 days after construction), potential cost savings over CSL and PIT (fewer false positives), and the unique ability to eval-
uate the positioning of the rebar cage and thickness of concrete cover. Concrete cover is of particular importance, structurally, in shafts subject to lateral loads such as those caused by wind. TIP using the Thermal Wire method consists of attaching specialty cables fitted with thermal sensors at every 300 mm along the
rebar cage. The sensors record concrete temperatures as the cement cures; the analysis of temperature patterns helps identify shaft anomalies and evaluate the position of the rebar cage. GRL Engineers, Inc. was retained to provide TIP services on the foundations of 86 tangent structures (5 to 7 feet in diameter and approximately 32 feet long). Good results led to the test of five critical dead-end shafts that were approximately twice the size of the tangent shafts. Following those, EC Source proposed converting the QA/QC of several other foundation structures from CSL to Thermal Integrity Profiling. EC Source’s Neil Russo remarked that due to the magnitude and scheduling challenges of the projects, the change in testing methods was invaluable to successfully complete its foundations, allowing EC Source to speed up production and reducing the need for additional testing and coring. v GEORGIA EnGInEER
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nEFGEn MEET UP SYnOPSIS GEORGIA InSTITUTE OF TECHnOlOGY he NEF Generation (NEFGen) team visited the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta for an inspiring sixth NEFGen meet-up on November 14, 2014. More than 25 Georgia Tech undergraduate, graduate and PhD students joined the event, representing aerospace, civil, electrical, mechanical, biomedical, industrial, material science, and robotic engineering joined the discussion on the National Engineering Forum (NEF) 3C’s—capability, capacity and competitiveness. Georgia Tech’s Dean of Engineering Gary May showed the pride he has in his students, remarking that the
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talent at this university is unmatched. The NEFGen conversation kicked off with a discussion of why these students chose engineering and several themes became clear: • Some students always had an interest in math, physics or science and found that engineering was a practical way to apply those skills.
•
Life experiences and career goals led some students to engineering majors that focus on sustainability, economic impact and international influence.
•
A number of students mentioned the lack
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of STEM involvement in their early education, therefore came to college pursuing a non-technical degree. Then they were exposed to engineering opportunities and decided to shift their focus.
•
• •
Students also talked about the exciting technical projects they’re working on, including: •
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An Aerospace engineering project to launch a 16 kg satellite, which will launch a smaller satellite in flight. This is the largest satellite ever launched by a university •
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Rescue Robotics program, launching robots that can then navigate to run rescue missions
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A project to bring sanitation solutions to parts of the world where people need them
•
The theme of entrepreneurship also emerged:
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Engineering Senior design projects are paired with non-technical degrees to promote the realistic possibility of these projects spinning out into startup companies
nologies that focus on sustainability and world impact. •
Encouraged by international growth opportunities with a large Engineers Without Borders program
Georgia Tech an annual invention competition with prizes to include payment for the patent
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Biomedical engineering sophomore students design a medical device prototype while also working business case and market analysis for the product
They want to be remembered for doing something special and changing the world through being open minded to diverse opportunities
•
A final comment quoted a Portuguese philosopher, “Contradiction is the key to innovation” and the room erupted in agreement that Georgia Tech is committed to disrupting the technology landscape
Students also talked about their motivation to support projects and tech-
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PROBlEM SOlvED? nOT YET FOR AMERICA’S EnGInEERS nATIOnAl EnGInEERInG FORUM ngineering is the bridge between scientific discovery and the practical solutions we depend on every minute of every day. Look around and you’ll see a multitude of things that were first conceived in the mind of an engineer. Keep looking and you see dozens of things that depend on the transportation, communication, energy, and information infrastructure created by generations of American engineers. But it’s time to do more than just appreciate the things engineers do to make our lives better. Our nation must recognize that a strong and vibrant engineering enterprise is directly related to the sustainability of our way of life. We need your help to do that. Specifically, we need to find solutions to the challenges of capacity (the number of engineers), capability (the skills needed to meet today’s complex challenges), and competitiveness (the policies that support the enterprise). Those three challenges are what we at the National Engineering Forum (NEF) call “the 3Cs.” Capacity is being strained as older engineers retire. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 24 percent of the engineering workforce will retire by 2020. That’s just four years from now. It’s estimated we will need 365,000 engineers just to replace them. In addition, those retiring engineers take with them invaluable wisdom and know-how. The capacity challenge is compounded by the capability challenge, that is the fact that today’s engineers need to FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
Meagan Campion, external engineering advocacy, Lockheed Martin; Chad Evans, executive vice president, Council on Competitiveness; Thomas Noonan, general manager, Cisco; C. Michael Cassidy, president and CEO of the Georgia Research Alliance; Dr. G. P. “Bud” Peterson, president, Georgia Tech; Dr. Gary May, dean of engineering, Georgia Tech operate in a fast-moving world of rapidlyevolving disciplines that call for new skills and multi-disciplinary approaches, such as cyber security, energy, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. The lines between disciplines are blurring and a new, holistic approach to engineering is coming into focus as we address the grand challenges of the 21st century. Adding to the challenges of capacity and capability are a suite of complex competitiveness challenges. From tax policy to export policy, to immigration policy and intellectual property policy, we need informed political leaders who will ensure that American engineers are supported
with the tools for success. These challenges are national in scope. But the solutions will largely be implemented school by school and state by state. To examine these challenges through a local lens and identify solutions, NEF is travelling across the country to cities where engineering plays a critical role like Atlanta; Detroit; Houston; Knoxville; Los Angeles; Orlando; Seattle; Tennessee and New York. We’ve enlisted leaders from government, academia, industry, the arts, finance, and media in the movement to develop actionable solutions to the 3C’s. A little over a year ago, we visited 45
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) for our Atlanta dialogue co-hosted by Georgia Tech and the Georgia Research Alliance. Tom Noonan, seasoned entrepreneur and Georgia Tech alumnus, provided the evening’s keynote remarks, calling out the need to interconnect entrepreneurship, industry and education to develop the engineers required for building the societies of the future. Participants reinforced that point. Despite being one of the fastest growing cities in the country, attendees of the dialogue noted that more Georgia Tech engineers are leaving Atlanta than are staying —creating a particular skills deficit in the region. Dialogue discussants also lamented the culture in the United States that accepts weak science and math skills and affords engineering little social standing. Despite those realities, the tone of the dialogue was optimistic, focusing on leveraging the strengths of the Greater Atlanta region such as robust physical and cyber infrastructure, low cost of living, high quality of life, world class universities, and the congeniality of southern communities that facilitates collaboration. We encourage you to read more
Bud Peterson, President of Georgia Tech about the unique challenges and actionable solutions we’ve identified so far in our interim report Engineering our Nation’s Future and watch for our full report on the findings of the dialogue series later this year. The insights and ideas from across the country are informing our next steps
in solving the 3C’s. We are also harnessing the power of social media to expand the dialogue. Join the 3C’s conversation and share your ideas for solutions that will strengthen engineering and our nation. Learn more at www.nationalengineeringforum.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. v
Gary May Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech
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Engineering Promising Young Mathematicians By Amanda Naar | MATHCOUNTS Foundation
2015 National Champion Kevin Liu talks to reporters. Kevin answered the winning Countdown Round question in just 17.9 seconds.
Credit for all photos in this article: Damian Strohmeyer Photography
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The Georgia State Team (with luke Zhuo holding the team banner) runs in for the Countdown Round at the 2015 Raytheon MATHCOUnTS national Competition.
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his month—at the very moment people and organizations around the world join forces to celebrate engineering—a very different, but closely connected event is taking place in Savannah, Georgia. Another is taking place in Atlanta. Another in Pittsburgh. Yet another in Denver. Even one in Taipei, Taiwan. More than 500 MATHCOUNTS® Chapter Competitions will take place in February, and although on the surface they may not seem directly related to EWeek, in truth, engineering is at the very heart of MATHCOUNTS and the work we do.
A MATHCOUNTS competition is an event unlike any other. Students excitedly whiz through problem after problem in the fast-paced Sprint Round. The Target Round that follows replaces speed with the tense rigor of in-depth problem solving, as students get just two problems at a time to solve. During these rounds it is difficult not to imagine lightbulbs going off over students’ heads as they figure out a puzzling question or suddenly discover a simple solution that was in front of them the entire time. After the individual rounds conclude and the Team Round begins, the competition room sounds more like a rowdy school cafeteria than a test site. Working in teams of four, students answer 10 challenging math problems covering a range of topics. Frenzied whispers, occasional shouts and even bursts of laughter show the depth of cooperation and support students give each other as they collaborate. Whatever feelings a student had before entering this competition—whatever baggage or preconceived notions he had about math or his ability to do it—are wiped away in this moment. This is mathematics at its finest and it is not a place of fear. MATHCOUNTS began as collaboration between the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the CNA Foundation in 1983. These organizations sought to provide more meaningful ways for middle school students to engage in mathematics outside of the classroom in a way that was fun and thrilling. The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series was created and quickly became established as the premier math competition for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
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Last year’s Department of Defense Team, (from left to right) Annette Belleman, Josh Lovejoy, Lily Butler, Tyler Barber and Coach Kara Stolee-Kiefer take a team photo before the written competition. Since its founding more than three decades ago, our organization has grown tremendously. Now three programs strong, MATHCOUNTS has become much more than a competition. Our mission is to provide engaging math programs for students of all ability levels to build confidence and improve attitudes about math and problem solving. That means helping students who love math unlock their talent and find acceptance, and it means helping students who fear math unlock their passion and find their self-confidence.
students in all U.S. states and territories,
the Math Video Challenge—grew to
as well as in schools worldwide affiliated
8,923 schools and organizations, serving
with the Department of Defense and
more than 163,000 student participants.
State Department. Last year, participa-
In total more than a quarter million stu-
tion in our three programs—the Compe-
dents are impacted annually by the math
tition Series, the National Math Club and
programs and resources we provide.
MATHCOUNTS programs reach
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GEORGIA EnGInEER
This impact is not possible without help. MATHCOUNTS relies on a network of more than 17,000 volunteers each year. Many of them are members of the National Society of Professional Engineers. Virtually every chapter competition taking place this month is planned and executed by a professional engineer volunteering his or her own time. Nearly 600 MATHCOUNTS Competition Coordinators, along with thousands of engineers nationwide who help on competition day, make these unique events possible. The future of engineering depends on students who are interested in math and have the drive, confidence and perseverance to pursue advanced degrees and professional certifications in the field. In this way, the connection between engineering and MATHCOUNTS seems obvious: today’s engineers volunteer their time to give tomorrow’s engineers opportunities to build their mathematics and problem solving skills. We already have seen tremendous results from those opportunities for students. Approximately three out of every four MATHCOUNTS alumni go on to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM)— nearly three times the national average. Ninety-five percent of teachers who lead a MATHCOUNTS program in their schools agree that participating helped improve their students’ problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Yet equally important is the personal impact volunteers can have on an individual student and the ripple effect
MATHCOUNTS Executive Director Lou DiGioia moderates the Countdown Round at the 2015 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition.
it can have on her relationship to STEM and learning in general. Just last month Linda Rosen, chief executive officer of Change the Equation, explained this in an article for the Huffington Post, asserting “skills-based volunteerism is an excellent way for STEM professionals to inspire and engage students in STEM learning. Skills-based volunteerism leverages the skills, talent, experiences, passion and education of STEM profes-
sionals and matches them to the learning needs of students.” Beyond the positive effects for businesses, skills-based volunteerism should continue, Rosen noted frankly, “because we know it works.” The role of skills-based volunteerism for MATHCOUNTS is probably best explained by one of our alumni. Jared, a past participant from Kentucky, is currently pursuing his engineering de-
Problem from the 2015 Raytheon MATHCOUnTS national Competition Team Round: In the city of Trichotomy, every day the weather is exactly one of the following: sunny, cloudy or rainy. Each day has a 50% chance of having the same weather as the day before and a 25% chance of having each of the other two types of weather. If it does not rain on Friday, what is the probability that there will be no rain during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday)? Express your answer as a common fraction. winning problem from the 2015 Raytheon MATHCOUnTS national Competition Countdown Round: How many arithmetic progressions of six increasing terms include the terms 15 and 20? FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
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gree and aspires to become a pharmaceutical chemical engineer. When asked about the impact MATHCOUNTS had on him, more than anything else he talked about engineers. “During my first competition, for the first time, I saw a real life application for my math skills. The people running the tournament were engineers and they were excited to tell how engineers make a difference in the world today. I returned every year in middle school to the MATHCOUNTS program and by the eighth grade I had made it to the national competition. I have always enjoyed the problems we had to work out. They made us think harder to come up with solutions. There were no calculators for much of the competition, only our own minds. We had to work as a team and individually and this is where I realized that engineering was going to be my future. The Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers held a luncheon for the national team and they had engineers speak and do demonstrations of real world applications of engineering to which my favorite was the chemical reactions.
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“I learned engineering is in everything we do; from the clothes we wear to a medication engineered to cure a disease. I want to work with people who love math and science and solve great problems of the world. It was MATHCOUNTS that introduced me to the field of engineering and it will be MATHCOUNTS that I credit with my move to engineering and the great accomplishments I hope to achieve.” Even our alumni who do not become engineers continue to make a difference in the lives of students. Our own executive director, Lou DiGioia, is a MATHCOUNTS alumnus; three members of our Board of Directors are alumni and
they all use their diverse talents to help our organization grow. Many of our coordinators, like Georgia State Coordinator Betty Jean Jordan, P.E., are also MATHCOUNTS alumni. All of them owe their own experiences as middle school Mathletes® to the volunteer engineers who made their local programs possible. It is true, engineering is at the heart of MATHCOUNTS. More importantly, engineers are the soul and backbone of our organization. For all of us at MATHCOUNTS, February marks a time not only to celebrate the impact engineering has on the world, but also the world of difference engineers make in their local communities. v
GEORGIA EnGInEER
FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
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Three Keys to Building a Winning Culture By Oko Buckle
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Burns & McDonnell has been a tremendous growth story, not only in Georgia but nationwide. But the interesting thing is that we’ve never had specific growth targets. We’ve always believed the growth would come if we did things right – in other words, focus on clients and treat our own people well. That has required us to identify those elements we believe lead to a great workplace culture, a place where people want to work and hopefully build a career. Building a successful business culture really boils down to three very simple things – 1) mentorship, 2) hiring great people and 3) listening.
Mentoring It is important to both have a mentor and to be a mentor. None of us know everything. We all need guidance and support, no matter our role in any organization. If you don’t have a mentor, look around you to identify the natural leaders. They are the people your co-workers are already going to for advice on any number of questions. Those types of natural leaders have great instincts and a desire to help others, so don’t hesitate to approach them. And remember that you can have multiple mentors depending on what aspect of your career or life you plan on improving. It’s also important to be a mentor. You don’t have to wait for someone in authority to assign you to work with someone. There are both formal and informal mentors in any organization and the mentor relationship can be long-term or short-term. It starts by always being willing to give advice and support to those around you. Mentorship has long been a priority 54
at Burns & McDonnell because it’s part of our process of succession planning. We are focused on always making sure we are grooming someone to take the next step forward, even to take your job. We believe strongly in the need to groom people for advancement all the time. It’s important to always be ready to take the next step in your own career and that becomes easier when you have someone ready to take over for you. I have had a number of great mentors at Burns & McDonnell and it was definitely a factor in being ready to assume leadership of our Atlanta office, when our former general manager announced his retirement last year.
to hire only people smarter than you. As an employee-owned company, Burns & McDonnell does not hire people for projects. We believe when we hire great people, the projects will follow. We bring on people in the hope and expectation that they will be here for the long term, even for the rest of their careers. Our interview process can be long and arduous. Our job candidates will be asked to talk with numerous people from all parts of our organization. We look for fit and chemistry in addition to qualifications and education. We know that employee ownership is not for everyone. Our expectations are quite high, so we look for smart, dedicated people who will stop at nothing to make sure the
Hire Great Talent The second key to building an excellent culture is to hire talented people. It can make your life so much easier. When you hire excellent people, your preparation and orientation time will be much shorter. They will be ready to jump into any assignment much faster. I believe when you hire great people, you can just turn them loose and “forget” about it. They will make you look better and smarter than you really are by letting them use their talents. It’s also true that when you hire the best talent, they have a way of bringing along two or three others who are equally as talented. It’s a cycle that has paid dividends many times over for Burns & McDonnell. The goal is always GEORGIA EnGInEER
client is satisfied and the job is done right. Our current CEO, Greg Graves, said it best – “Burns & McDonnell is one of the best places to work but at the same time one of the toughest companies to work for” The reason is that we work very smart and hard. Expectations are high at all times and we work tirelessly to make our clients successful and extremely satisfied. I’ve seen both sides of the employee-ownership picture at Burns & McDonnell, both as a hiring manager and as a new employee. I did not start my career at Burns & McDonnell, so when I received an offer to come to work here, I frankly felt quite insulted. The starting salary offer was quite a bit less than what I was making at my previous employer and I was ready to walk away. Then, I had a meeting with Wally Womack, who was then the leader of our T&D division and one of the founding officers responsible for Burns & McDonnell becoming an employee-owned firm. I explained my reservations to Wally and he spent a lot of time with me trying to help me understand what it was that made Burns & McDonnell such a special place. He explained to me that I would have great freedom to take my career as far as it could go and my input and ideas would be highly valued. When I still had trouble getting past the compensation barrier, he finally said to me: “You know Oko, we have 2,000 people working here and most of them have been here many years. Do you really think that all those people would stay around so long if we weren’t taking care of them?” His point was, when you perform, the rewards always follow. And just about everyone at Burns & McDonnell is a high performer. FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
Still, I wasn’t totally convinced. After I accepted Wally’s offer, I went home and told my wife, I’ll give this place three years. After that, if it doesn’t work out, I should be able to go anywhere I want and do pretty well. Well, three years came and went and now I’m in my 10th year. And my story is not unique. Many of us have started at Burns & McDonnell with some reservations and only found out it really is a great place to work after we had lived the employee-ownership culture for a while. You really have to experience it to understand it. We come to believe we’re working for each other as
much as we are for the client. Believe me, no one wants to let down the person you work next to and talk to every day. Listen More Than You Speak The third key is the ability to listen to each other. We all get busy and begin thinking, we just don’t have time to listen to what others may be telling us. This is a big mistake. Nothing is more important than making time to really hear what people around us are trying to say. It’s important to clear some time on our calendars to just walk around and talk with people face to face. But it really goes far beyond that. We have to develop listening skills that goes beyond just understanding the words. It’s not always the
sounds that are coming out of our mouths that are most important. It’s having the ability to detect what it is the other person is really intending to communicate. Again, I have a personal story that illustrates this. I am a native of Ghana and speak with a fairly heavy accent, even though English has been my primary language since I was four or five years old. I grew up speaking English and have spent all my adult life in America. But still, I have learned that my accent sometimes prevents people from understanding what I am really trying to say. One of my close work colleagues is a native of a non-English-speaking country and has an even more difficult time than I have had. Not only is English not his primary language, he has a pronounced accent that has given him difficulties communicating with his American-born co-workers. Because of my own difficulties, I have learned to both listen to his words and detect his real message. It requires observation and listening and not being afraid to ask questions. You have to listen with the intent to deeply understand someone and also expect that sometimes they really want to say something they are not communicating at first. So, from that standpoint, I sometimes think my accent has given me an advantage in learning how to listen. Each person communicates differently and we can’t take anything at face value. In summary, I believe focusing on building a winning culture goes far beyond just meeting sales goals or project deadlines. Those are important of course, but the three basics of building strong relationships—mentoring, hiring great talent and listening—are where strong cultures always start. v 55
ASHRAE Technology
Innovative Buildings Recognized by ASHRAE with Technology Awards Wind turbines, subcooled glycol/water, geothermal wells, reuse of coil condensation water and a central heat pump water heating system are among the innovative measures used in the five buildings receiving ASHRAE Technology Awards. The awards recognize outstanding achievements by members who have successfully applied innovative building design. Their designs incorporate ASHRAE standards for effective energy management and indoor air quality. Winning projects are selected from entries earning regional awards. First place awards will be presented at the ASHRAE 2016 Winter Conference, Jan. 23-27, Orlando, Florida. Following are summaries of the winning projects: Walgreens Net Zero Store Benjamin A. Skelton, P.E., BEMP, president, Cyclone Energy Group, Chicago, Ill., receives first place in the new commercial buildings category for the Walgreens Net Zero Store, Evanston, Ill. The building is owned by Walgreen Co. The global retail pharmacy brand set out with a vision to create a scalable retail building design that would serve as a showcase for innovative, sustainable and high performance design to sustainability, architecture, engineering and retail communities. The store is designed to achieve 56
Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport Pre-Conditioned Air
GEORGIA EnGInEER
net zero energy use by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s most stringent definition of “renewable energy generated within the building footprint.” Among its innovative features are: • 840 roof-mounted solar panels, generating enough energy to power 30 Illinois homes for a year • two 35-foot-tall wind turbines, using winds from Lake Michigan to generate enough power to offset annual greenhouse gas emissions from 2.2 passenger vehicles • geo-exchange energy obtained by drilling 550 feet into the ground below the store • LED lighting and daylight harvesting • carbon dioxide refrigerant for heating, cooling and refrigeration equipment • energy efficient building materials The owner set out with a vision to create a store that would be an innovation laboratory to test products, materials, systems and equipment that could be incorporated into prototype designs and retrofit throughout existing stores. Walgreens also wanted to share the results from the design, construction and ongoing operation of the store with the public, design community and even their competition. The store is designed to facilitate tours, including hosting executives and designers from their retail competition. DPR Construction’s San Francisco Net Positive Energy Office Dylan T. Connelly, associate, Integral Group, Oakland, Calif., receives first place in the existing commercial buildings category for DPR Construction’s San Francisco Net Positive Energy Office. DPR Construction occupies the building and has a 10 year lease with an option for 10 more years. A national construction company, DPR sought to lead by example and transform the building industry with its retrofitted net positive 22,000 square foot San Francisco office. The office demonstrates the potential of the capabilities of inteFEBRUARY | MARCH 2016
Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport Pre-Conditioned Air grated, innovated and replicable design, reducing energy use and improving indoor environmental conditions while being cost effective with today’s technologies. The design includes a 118 kw rooftop photovoltaic system, all electric systems, operable skylights, building management system controlled ceiling fans, enhanced daylighting and living walls. A net positive energy office building was achieved by reducing energy loads through use of efficient HVAC and electrical systems, and by installing photovoltaic and solar thermal systems on the roof to produce more energy than the building consumes. The target energy use index (EUI) was 23.6 kBTU/square foot/year and achieved a first year EU of 20.4, significantly lower than the code baseline of 49 EUI and 20 percent net positive energy. By retrofitting an existing building vs. building new, the project reduced its initial carbon footprint by over 70 percent. Occupant comfort and health is also a top priority. A dedicated outdoor air system delivers 30 percent more ventilation than required ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality. Heat recovery ventilators use MERV 8 pre-filters and MERV 13 final filters to filter out contaminants, increasing the efficiency of filtration and continuing to improve indoor air quality.
Another interesting feature is the use of dynamic elements, such as sunlight and plants, to activate the space, engage users and provide a connection of surroundings. Three living walls in the main lobby improve indoor air quality by absorbing volatile organic compounds while also increasing the overall wellbeing for occupants. Anne-Marie Edward Science Building – John Abbott College Nicolas Lemire, Ing., HFDP, president/principal, Pageau Morel and Associates, Montreal, Quebec, receives first place in the new educational facilities category for the Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College, Sainte- Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, Quebec. The building is owned by the college. The contemporary six-story facility is named after a victim of a 1989 shooting at Ecole Polytechnique who was a science graduate of John Abbott. Anne-Marie Edward had been pursuing an engineering degree, and the community felt that through engineering, the pavilion demonstrated how humans are essential to environmental sustainability using applied knowledge and technology. Energy diversification is accomplished with the use of geothermal wells, electrical heating and cooling, natural gas hot water heating and solar preheating.
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Potable water consumption is reduced with the use of low flow plumbing fixtures and resources are maximized through reuse and recuperation: • reuse of return air as compensation air in laboratories • reuse of coil condensation water to humidify exhaust air • recuperation on both general and laboratory exhausts • recuperation through heat pump extraction and storage in stratified tanks • recuperation of rainwater and fan-coil condensation water. Laboratory ventilation requirements and large glazing surfaces can have devastating effects on energy efficiency. Nonetheless, the building’s actual energy use is 45 percent lower than the baseline case and 10 percent lower than the proposed simulation. Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport Pre-Conditioned Air Ken Warren, P.E., capital project manager, Port of Seattle (Wash.), receives first place in the new industrial facilities or processes category for the Sea-Tac Airport Pre-Conditioned Air project. The building is owned by the Port of Seattle. The Port’s Century Agenda sets a vision of reducing carbon emissions and air pollutants, increasing energy conserva58
tion, being socially and fiscally responsible and exceeding customer expectations. Its Pre-conditioned Air project is an important step in meeting an agenda objective of being the greenest, most energy efficient port in North America. The system includes a pre-conditioned air plant (PCAP), piping and air handlers to provide cooling and heating for airplanes during boarding and deplaning to reduce costs for airlines, improved air quality, reduced noise and increased energy efficiency. The PCAP delivers subcooled glycol/water through 15 miles of piping to each of the 73 airplane gates in the existing facility, to serve the complete airplane HVAC&R needs. The system allows airplanes to shut off their jet-fueled on-board auxiliary power units (APUs), resulting in jet fuel savings and reductions in carbon dioxide and other gas emissions. The reductions realized through the project include annual savings of: • An estimated five million gallons in fuel; a $15 million savings in airline fuel costs • 40,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, the equivalent of removing 8,000 cars from the road • 73 tons of nitrogen oxides • Noise pollution from aircraft parked at the gates operating their APUs
Stack House Apartments Jonathan M. Heller, P.E., principal engineer, Ecotope Inc., Seattle, Washington, receives first place in the residential category for the Stack House Apartments. The building is owned by Stack House Acquisition LLC. The project includes two new multifamily buildings and one adaptive reuse of a historic building, which helped to retain some of the historical character of the neighborhood. The project covers an entire city block in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. Innovative mechanical systems include a central heat pump water heating system in the largest of the two multifamily buildings, ductless heat pumps for 40 percent of the apartment units and common spaces, and rainwater catchment and reuse for urban agriculture on the roof. The historic building was included in the City of Seattle’s pilot of an outcomebased energy code; the first program in the nation to predicate energy code compliance on post-occupancy proof of highly efficient operations. The project also participated in a stormwater treatment pilot project with Seattle Public Utilities with two biofiltration swales providing primary treatment to stormwater run-off from the Capitol Hill neighborhood before discharging to Lake Union. The apartments are among the most energy efficient in the Pacific Northwest with measured EUIs of 19.8 kBtu/square foot/year for the West Building and 27.1 kBtu/square foot/year for the Southeast Building. v
GEORGIA EnGInEER