Graduate EDUCATION AND RESEARCH Volume 8, Issue 1
Summer 2018 Newsletter
ALUMNI UPDATE: CATCHING UP WITH JUSTIN SCHMELTZ Justin Schmeltz graduated from Parks College at Saint Louis University Spring 2016 with a Master of Science in Engineering, specializing in Structural Civil Engineering. We interrupted Justin’s volunteer work at St. Louis Family Church’s vacation bible school camp to talk about his experience at Parks and what he’s been up to since graduating.
Q What attracted you to Parks College of Engineering, Aviation, and Technology? A There were opportunities to do research and coursework in areas which
provided immersion into real world civil engineering practices. Getting this exposure seemed to be a good chance to go through graduate school while moving into the professional world as well and beginning to gain experience with the techniques of both consultants and contractors. Tell us about your time at Parks. My research area was the assessment of bracing systems to prevent excessive rotation of exterior bridge girders due to eccentric construction loading. Specifically, my research dealt with assessing a measurement program which predicted the maximum rotation that an exterior girder was to experience during construction and providing recommendations for this program’s future use by the research sponsor, IDOT. I worked under the advisement of Dr. Riyadh Hindi. I was very proud to be nominated for the Outstanding Graduate Student Award during my last semester. Another highlight of the Parks community was the helpful and friendly faculty and staff of Parks. I often stopped by the offices of Chris Hoffmann and Nicole Mispagel to chat or say hi. Tell us about life after graduation. A few weeks after graduation, I began working as a Bridge Engineer for a St. Louis-based civil engineering consulting firm called Horner and Shifrin. I became the newest member of their Structural Engineering-Bridge group and began working in the design and assessment of bridges and bridge systems. I am still there currently. Recently, I finished my first personal design start to finish this past fall for a simple span bridge to be built in Manchester, MO along Spring Meadows drive. What about your experience at Parks prepared you for your current position? Exposure to practicing professionals in the form of adjunct faculty and various extracurricular opportunities provided good preparation for the adjustment of working out of textbooks to working on bridge plans. There is a translation which is necessary to learn between how things work in theory and how they work in practice, and the experience of my education at Parks College helped to expedite my progression from student to professional. e 6)
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