January 2015 |
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 January If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for January, 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 December edition of News Around Region 4 Share this page via social media and email: |
REGION DIRECTOR'S REPORT Highlights of January’s ASCE Board of Direction Meeting David B. Peterson, P.E., F.ASCE, your Region 4, Director, is a member of the North Carolina Section and is a Senior Manager for Rummel, Klepper & Kahl, LLP, in Raleigh, NC. David represented you at the ASCE Board of Direction meeting on January 8 in Miami, held in conjunction with the first of three Multi-Region Leadership Conferences. These conferences bring together Section, Branch and Region leaders, along with leaders from student chapters and Younger Member Groups. Vibrant, sunny Miami proved to be an ideal location for the MRLC, which offered sessions aimed at improving management of ASCE entities and on developing leadership skills for all career phases. Board members appreciated the opportunity to hear firsthand about challenges, concerns and aspirations from so many different ASCE members, and found the conference environment to be energizing. After welcoming its newest board members, installed at the ASCE business meeting in October, and its new executive director, Tom Smith, the board worked through an agenda that included both business actions and strategic discussions. Among the the business conducted, the board:
The board also spent some time developing and discussing a set of core values that would guide its interaction as a board. Civil engineering is a profession grounded in ethical practice and professionalism, and ASCE is well-served by its Code of Ethics, vision, and mission. A set of core values would complement these by establishing a common understanding of how the board pledges to function in its work together and with constituents throughout the Society to cultivate a climate of excellence, teamwork and integrity. Based on the positive discussion at this meeting, the board expects to adopt a set of core values at a future meeting. Board members are interested in your views on the issues they are considering. To share your views, or other ideas on how ASCE can better serve its members and the profession, please email David. |
VIRGINIA SECTION Section issues new Report Card for Virginia’s Infrastructure, gives state a C– The overall state of Virginia's infrastructure has improved marginally to a C–, but its roads deserve no better than a D, according to the new 2015 state Report Card released by the Virginia Section. The next lowest grade among 10 categories was a D for wastewater; the highest, a B– for solid waste. The findings led members to offer three keys to improve public works and raise the grades. Explore Virginia's Report Card. Section website>> (new, under construction). |
INDIANA SECTION Purdue professor of environmental and ecological engineering elected ASCE Fellow Ernest R. Blatchley III, Ph.D., P.E, BCEE, F.ASCE, is a professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University, where he conducts research in the broad area of physico/chemical processes of environmental engineering, with particular focus on disinfection processes. Among his major accomplishments, the Blatchley group and its collaborators introduced the concept of the “dose distribution” for analysis of UV-based photochemical reactors, particularly those used for disinfection. In addition, the Blatchley group also developed Lagrangian Actinometry, which is the only method by which the dose distribution can be measured. Discover more about what made Blatchley worthy of election as an ASCE Fellow in ASCE News. |
VIRGINIA SECTION Virginia high-speed rail project advances Preliminary engineering is under way on what would be a new “critical” link between the Washington, D.C., metro area and Richmond. See what’s being studied in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine. |
IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE Engineering executives’ compensation dips since recession The total compensation package for executives in engineering and construction professions has declined since 2008, in part because of suffering corporate profits. Discover who’s faring better in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine. |
IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE EPA pilot program explores risks to water utilities from climate change Twenty communities facing a wide range of potential climate-change effects are participating in a $600,000 pilot program conducted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to identify these risks and develop adaptation plans. Explore the program’s benefits in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine. |