Photo:South Texas College High school students in Texas will earn college engineering credit before graduation. A trailblazing program in Texas could become a national model for recruiting the next generation of engineers. At two campuses of South Texas College, high school students will earn a college-level associate’s degree in engineering before they even graduate. The 18,400-student college’s “dual enrollment academy,” begun this fall, encourages high school juniors and seniors to go on to college to pursue industry careers and four-year engineering degrees. With financial support from the outside, students from 14 participating schools pay little or nothing for courses that
Photo:Olin College Senior Robin Maslowski takes in new skills at summer internship. Olin College, a nontraditional engineering school located in a very traditional bastion of higher education, doesn’t do what might be expected. The Needham, Mass., college is in the heart of the upscale eastern Ivy League but appeals to middle class students with free tuition and claims that it is not elitist. Its now-deceased benefactor and its current president both have ties to civil engineering, but there is no such major there. And, the school pushes entrepreneurship and competitiveness to students, yet has few links to an industry founded
OCSD Pipe will supply water reclamation plant with secondary-treated flows. Hard against the Santa Ana River's concrete channel and an ever moving wave of urban encroachment in southern California, contractors working the first stages of Orange County Sanitation District's $3-billion wastewater treatment buildout are fighting labor shortages and material price increases while dealing with finicky neighbors. The owner, an amalgam of 25 municipalities and utility districts representing about two-thirds of the county, is relying on a revamped public-private management team to meet engineering, construction and financial goals using a custom program management system. So far, the team is achieving new
It can be hard to put a price on the value of being a good neighbor, but in the case of the Orange County Water District, it comes to about $266 million. That is about half the cost of the district's Groundwater Replenishment System, being paid for by the Orange County Sanitation District. Its centerpiece is a 70-million-gallon-per-day advanced treatment plant. OCSD On schedule for completion next year, it will take secondary-treated effluent from OCSD's adjacent Plant 2 and send it through microfiltration tanks, reverse-osmosis membranes and ultraviolet disinfection. The resulting product, treated beyond safe drinking water standards, will be
Multimedia: audio slideshow The Roundtable Discussion podcast An Interview with Bill Fife, Corporate Vice President of DMJM+Harris podcast An Interview with Robert J. Cammaroto, Manager, Commercial Airports Policy Transportation Security Administration podcast An Interview with Sam Sleiman, PE Director of Capital Programs & Environmental Affairs Massachusetts Port Authority podcast An Interview with David Z. Plavin Airport Consultant podcast Roundtable Discussion: Rescreening of Canadian Transfer Bags in the U.S. ENR and Aviation Week co-sponsored Planes, Pains and Payments, an aviation roundtable, on Oct. 6. Almost 30 aviation officials representing federal agencies, airports, vendors, consultants and contractors discussed the crucial challenges facing
Photo:AP/Wideworld Translucent concrete, like this arch in Hungary, sheds new light on traditional limitations. Photo:Studio/Gang/Architects Chicago's "Aqua" is an example of how design is reshaping traditional materials. Concrete—that gray, monolithic building material—is getting a face-lift. Inventors are reshaping it to do more, last longer and show off. A new kind of “translucent” concrete uses fiber optics to carry light and shadow. New light-sensitive terrazzo flooring can reflect a rainbow of colors. And high-strength concrete placed inside buildings and bridges can flex like hard rubber to dampen earthquake shocks. The possibilities seem endless. Innovation is infusing other traditional building blocks, such as
Photo:Material ConneXion Material ConneXion has libraries in New York, Bangkok, Cologne and Milan. Running late on a project and short on inspiration? At Material ConneXion, designers can jump onto the Internet or visit one of four international libraries showcasing 3,000 of the most intriguing substances on Earth. “People have been more interested in innovation,” says Andrew Dent, who is the firm’s vice president in charge of the “physical” library of materials. Founded in 1997 by George M. Beylerian, a furniture designer, Material ConneXion is now a busy clearinghouse that reviews about 50 new products every month and works with designers
Photo: Huang He Chongqing is rapidly developing, and growth means increased traffic for its bridges. China’s tremendous infrastructure buildout is making it a country of superlatives and that includes bridge construction. From ring roads to signature crossings—particularly self-anchored suspension spans—bridge projects abound. Non-Chinese consultants and suppliers see a growing role for themselves in helping build these bridges to international standards—and one U.S. firm is staking its claim in a particularly bridge-rich section of China. The hilly region of Chongqing in central China is a poster board for the kind of bridge construction flourishing in the country. With the Yangtze and
Power-users rolling more and more data into digital design and construction models are finding that getting the right data, at the right level of detail, and presenting it well-purposed for the task at hand is the key to gaining value in implementations large and small. There is a lot of experimentation and analysis about modeling going on today. Experts in technology implementation are taking the ever-expanding array of software and hardware and resolving best practices for implementing virtual design and construction tools. It’s not rocket science, but it takes some careful thinking, discussion and management to accomplish effective model use,”
Photo: Leah-ann Thompson - FOTOLIA Although medical and indemnity costs continue to soar in many regions across the U.S., recently enacted workers’ compensation reform laws in a number of states and better industry safety and workplace practices are beginning to drive workers’ compensation insurance rates downward, according to industry sources. “I would definitely say that [the rates are] stable to down, and around the country, we’re seeing rates probably decreasing for people who have a track record of good experience,” says Matt Walsh, managing director of Aon Construction Services Group, a division of Chicago-based Aon Corp. The National Council on
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