December 2014

Great outreach event or other activity? Let the whole Region know! If you’re a local ASCE leader and your Section, Branch, Younger Member Group, or Student Chapter has staged any special events, engaged in outreach from grade-school kids to lawmakers, done charity work, fund raising or anything of the sort, let ASCEnews Weekly know and we may include it in next month’s Region report. You may already have written about it and posted pictures in your newsletter, website, or social media. Share the details and any photos at asce.org/localnews. Got questions? Write to submissions@asce.org. See the other Region reports for December If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for December, click on each to view them:   Region 1   Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, Buffalo Section, Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, Ithaca Section, Maine Section, Metropolitan Section, Mohawk-Hudson Section, New Hampshire Section, New Jersey Section, Puerto Rico Section, Rhode Island Section, Rochester Section, Syracuse Section, Vermont Section Region 2   Central Pennsylvania Section, Delaware Section, Lehigh Valley Section, Maryland Section, National Capital Section, Philadelphia Section, Pittsburgh Section Region 3   Akron-Canton Section, Central Illinois Section, Central Ohio Section, Cincinnati Section, Cleveland Section, Dayton Section, Duluth Section, Illinois Section, Michigan Section, Minnesota Section, North Dakota Section, Quad Cities Section, Toledo Section, Wisconsin Section Region 4   Arkansas Section, Indiana Section, Kentucky Section, North Carolina Section, South Carolina Section, Tennessee Section, Virginia Section, West Virginia Section Region 5  Alabama Section, Florida Section, Georgia Section, Louisiana Section, Mississippi Section   Region 6  New Mexico Section, Oklahoma Section, Texas Section Region 7  Colorado Section, Iowa Section, Kansas City Section, Kansas Section, Nebraska Section, South Dakota Section, St. Louis Section, Wyoming Section Region 8  Alaska Section, Arizona Section, Columbia Section, Hawaii Section, Inland Empire Section, Montana Section, Nevada Section, Oregon Section, Seattle Section, Southern Idaho Section, Tacoma-Olympia Section, Utah Section Region 9 Los Angeles Section, Sacramento Section, San Diego Section, San Francisco Section Region 10   All International Sections, Branches, and Groups Missed last month's Region 4 update? See the November edition of  News Around Region 4 Share this page via social media and email:

NORTH CAROLINA SECTION Distinguished Member Petroski wins Cosmos Club science award Henry Petroski, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, author of influential books on the nature of engineering, received the 2014 John P. McGovern Award for Science from the Cosmos Club Foundation in Washington, DC. The Aleksandar S. Vesic professor of civil engineering and professor of history at Duke University, Petroski is best known for To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, published in 1985 and adapted as a BBC-TV documentary in 1987. Petroski has continued to write and lecture on the topics of success and failure, drawing upon historic and contemporary case studies to illustrate his thesis about the central role of failure in the engineering design process. Discover more about what made Petroski worthy of this distinguished honor in ASCE News.

INDIANA SECTION Notre Dame doctoral candidate named a 2015 New Face of Civil Engineering As a Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame, Maria Gibbs, S.M.ASCE, conducts research on bridge aeroelasticity with applications to help the rural poor around the world. Gibbs’ early achievements made her worthy of selection as one of ASCE’s 2015 New Faces of Civil Engineering. A recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship, Gibbs’ research looks at wind-induced motion of suspension footbridges to help design bridges built by Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), an organization that provides isolated communities with access to essential healthcare, education, and economic opportunities by building footbridges. Developing a method to collect dynamics data for B2P’s footbridges requiring only a smart phone app and a rope, Gibbs’ research allowed B2P to push the span limits of footbridge technology, increasing the reach of the organization’s efforts. “So my job,” Gibbs noted, “Was to erase that uncertainty and develop a tool that is going to predict how these structures are going to respond to the wind so that we can design and build these bridges safely, and to last a long time.” A dedicated leader, Gibbs recently spent a year on the B2P staff to develop the organization’s research and operational capacity, and continues to remain involved as member of its Board of Directors. Her dedication to the rural poor around the globe is reflected in her compassion, dedication, and integrity of her work as a young engineer. “I believe that people deserve the opportunity to be healthy, be educated and support themselves and their families,” says Gibbs. “That is what drives my work and will continue my work and what being a New Faces of Civil Engineering means to me.” Section website>>

IN ASCE’S CIVIL ENGINEERING MAGAZINE ONLINE Pay trends indicate construction market changes Research reveals the emphasis that engineering and construction firms are placing on securing new business in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Explore a consulting firm’s results in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.

IN ASCE’S CIVIL ENGINEERING MAGAZINE ONLINE Corps ‘embracing uncertainty’ in its project planning In adapting to climate change, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now models both historical and theoretical storms and consults a sea-level rise tool that it developed to gauge site vulnerability. Discover the Corps’ new approaches in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.. .