Fall President's Message

The ASCE Minnesota Section board is transitioning soon! Look for election ballots in your inbox in the coming week.

I encourage you to join me at one of the following events/activities this winter:

• November TBD Meeting: Hosted by the EWR Committee

• December TBD Meeting: Joint meeting with SAME

• January TBD: Membership Appreciation Event

• Many other committee meetings, tours, and Student Chapter activities — watch your emails Instructions to check email address on file with us

Announcement: The Enviornmental & Water Resources Committee is seeking a representative to join the MN Water Resources Conference Planning Committee. This term would begin mid-December 2023 and last for 2 years. This is a great opportunity to work with our local water experts to choose abstracts for presentations and moderate conference sessions. Please email ewr@ascemn.org by November 17.

Past Events:

• October 12 Meeting: October Section (Hybrid) Meeting in Rochester

• October 19 PE Info Session with MnSPE Hosted by our Younger Member Group: PE Exam Info Session

Follow us at ascemn.org or on LinkedIn.

Ariel Christenson, PE (MN, IN, NC, VA, WI), 2022-2023 ASCE-MN President

ASCE President Maria Lehman visits Minnesota and awardees are honored at the annual Awards Banquet

Last week marked another successful awards banquet where ASCE MN honored several chapter and student members with awards of professional and academic achievement! See below for the list of winners.

This year also marked our first in years where we hosted the society president! Maria C. Lehman, PE, ENV SP, flew into the Twin Cities for a jam-packed schedule of meet and greets, presentations, and networking. She was able to meet with state legislators, engineering practitioners, and MNDOT officials at the capitol to help foster critical infrastructure discussion, which will help advance ASCE MN and the Report Card committee's commitment to infrastructure policy-making and funding. Maria was also able to meet with the University of Minnesota’s student chapter and tour their facilities and have lunch with our Board of Directors.

She expressed gratitude for the opportunity to meet with key figures and gain an inside view of our successful Section! Thank you to everyone who helped make this day a success!

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Awardees:

• Minnesota Outstanding Engineer of the Year - Saura Jost

• MFESTS Charles Britzius Distinguished Engineer - William (Bill) Arnold

• MFESTS Young Engineer of the Year - Boya Xiong

• University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN)

  • Activities Awards - Anthony Tabura, Chandler Lallak, Kenny Hoang

  • Outstanding Student Awards - Berit Klein, Erika Christiansen, Emirlan Askerbekov, Dylan Marske, Samuel Maijala

  • Goodman Award - Kristina Hoffman

• University of St. Thomas (UST)

  • Outstanding Leadership Award - Genevieve Tester

  • Distinguished Service Award - Morgan Fritz

  • Excellence in Undergraduate Research - Evan Selin

• Minnesota State University - Mankato (MSU)

  • Outstanding Senior - Luke Halstead

  • Outstanding Junior - Mamy Fofana

  • Outstanding Underclassman - Celia Djoutsa

• SEI Chapter Scholarship Award - Berit Klein (UMN), Genevieve Tester (UST)

• 2023 ASCE Life Members - Paul Asp, Richard Baker, Roger Clay, Craig Collison, Bradley Fossum, Catherine French, Gregory Keil, Craig Kuske, Joseph Labuz, Randall Mikolai, Michael Speedling, Russell Stammer

Spring President's Message

It is my honor to serve as Minnesota ASCE Section President for 2022-2023. I've been part of this amazing organization since college, and have got to meet people along the way with so much drive and passion for our built environment. PEOPLE are the center of our civil engineering oath to protect public health, safety and welfare.

While it is only March, the leadership board pauses activities at the end of May, resuming with a summer planning meeting, and then again full strength in September with the next round of elections. So, time is flying by! I encourage you to join me at one of the following events/activities this spring:

• March 16 Meeting: March Section Meeting with SAME — American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (ascemn.org)

• April 12 Awards Banquet: April Awards Banquet — American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (ascemn.org)

• May TBD Meeting

• Ongoing legislative meetings including participating in ACEC's event: ACEC/MN Engineering Day at the Capitol 2023 - Mar 8, 2023 - American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota (acecmn.org)

• Ongoing structural engineering seminars and planning meetings

• Other committee meetings, Younger Member Group activities, and Student Chapter activities.

Thank you board members for volunteering your time to this non-profit organization of the profession!

Follow ASCE-MN activities at ascemn.org or on LinkedIn.

Ariel Christenson, PE (MN, IN, NC, VA, WI), 2022-2023 ASCE-MN President

ASCE tours the new Schoenecker Center at the University of St. Thomas

On September 29th, members of ASCE and civil engineering students from the University of St. Thomas spent a few hours learning about the construction of the new STEAM building and visiting the construction site at the University’s engineering campus! This event was hosted by civil engineering staff at the University and McGough Construction, with a presentation by the lead structural engineer, Swami Palanisami, P.E. This tour and presentation focused on the unique strong wall/ strong floor design being utilized in the construction of this five-story, 130,000 sq. ft., LEED certified education center. The building is anticipated to be open for the spring semester of 2024.

Innovative Applications using TDA - Additional Resources

Thank you to all who attended our March joint Section Meeting with the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME)! TDA Manufacturing and our speaker, Monte Niemi appreciated the opportunity to speak to our group about the various civil engineering applications of tire-derived aggregate, or TDA.

Below is a link to an additional video resource provided by TDA manufacturing that expands on some of the topics they covered. Feel free to check it out and contact tdamanufacturing@gmail.com with any questions you may have!

COVID-19 Webinar Highlights

Thank you to all who were able to attend the COVID-19 Webinar yesterday! We had 100 people registered, which was the limit on registration, and we really appreciated everyone engaging in the conversation through mentimeter.com.

This is a call to action for civil engineers. During a pandemic in which hand washing is the #1 recommendation, we need to be advocates for better infrastructure like drinking water.

We as civil engineers have the responsibility for the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

One of the questions that we asked was what suggestions do members have for online CEU's as the renewal deadlines for MN & WI are not currently being extended. Some of the responses were:

• ASCE (10 free PDHs through your membership)

• American Public Works Association (APWA)

• MN Concrete Pipe Association

• MNSEA/NCSEA

• AWMA

• NSPE (15 free PDHs)

• Midwest Geosciences

• ULI

• DBIA

• Risk through Insurance agent

• MN Stormwater seminar series

• Virtual conferences - e.g., AISC, ACEC, GBA

• Pipeline and Gas Journal webinars

• PDHEngineer.com

• Red Vector

• through your employer

Other discussion included pro-tips for working from home, working safely in the office or field, and tips for a successful virtual meeting.

A video recording of the presentation is available on our YouTube station HERE.

We encourage you to continue the discussion with other members using collaborate.asce.org, or by reaching out to us here at the ASCE-MN Board. “Talk” to you soon!

November 2018 Section Meeting

Here are 2 video’s of the November 2018 Section Meeting.

Presented by Michael Kronzer, MnDOT

Presented by Michael Vrtis, MnDOT