ASCE Plot Points Podcast

What keeps a community safe after an extreme event?
An interdependent system of systems.
Resilience starts with keeping those lifeline systems connected and working together

When it comes to inspiring the next generation of civil engineers, representation is so very important. Jose Castro, an assistant engineer in water resources for Michael Baker International in Irvine, California, tells his story of both how he was inspired to pursue civil engineering when he was a student and how he now inspires students through outreach work (1:52). In Extracurricular, we hear from Ashlyn

Planning for retirement is a crucial component to any personal finance strategy. But it’s not easy. When do you start? How much money is enough? Nicolai Oliden, in the second part of a two-part podcast series, helps answer those questions (1:06). Then in Origin Stories, we meet ASCE Virginia Section Past-President Daren Williams and hear how his father and the Navy helped shape his career,

No one likes to talk about money. It often feels immodest, awkward, maybe even embarrassing. So how do you get advice about managing your money and developing an investment strategy? Nicolai Oliden, a roadway project engineer for Ethos Engineering and former president of the Phoenix Younger Member Forum, helps young engineers have those difficult conversations about personal finance (1:18). And in Member Memos, we ask

Maybe you’ve recently been offered the chance to go work a career fair or talk to some students at a local school. And maybe you’ve thought, “Sure, it might be fun, but what would I even say? Why would those kids want to hear my story. I’m nobody special.” But maybe you’re totally wrong. Your presence for just one afternoon can have a huge effect

Job goals don’t always have to be centered around salary or status. Often, it’s more about personal happiness and finding the right fit. For Bianca Casem, a project engineer at Swenson Say Fagét in downtown Seattle, that means sharing an office with her dog (0:35). And in today’s Extracurricular segment, Chris Hanna, project engineer at Pennoni, discusses his passion for live music (8:56). Listen to

Margarita Kruyff is not a civil engineer. But she works with civil engineers every day in her job as the assistant director of the Environment and Sustainability Department for the City of Miami Beach and also serves as chair of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute Miami-Dade Chapter. So she is uniquely positioned to provide insights on what it’s like to work and communicate

ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute issued the “Prestandard for Performance-Based Wind Design” early this year. Performance-based design continues to be one of the four focus areas (along with resilience, life-cycle cost analysis and innovation) of ASCE’s Grand Challenge. Don Scott, P.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE, the prime investigator for the prestandard development team, talks about both the prestandard and, more broadly, the power of performance-based design to close

Guillermo Díaz-Fañas, C.Eng, Ing., P.E., M.ASCE, has been giving back and making a difference all his life. Today he talks about the nonprofit he helped start, Qu-AKE: Queer Advocacy and Knowledge Exchange, for LGBTQ+ professionals working in the built environment (1:16). In the Changing the World segment, Hector Colon de la Cruz discusses his work on ASCE’s Infrastructure Report Card for Puerto Rico (12:50). And

Making mistakes, unfortunately, is part of being human. But how do you handle mistakes on the job, especially if that job is something with such high stakes as civil engineering? Mike Howell has been helping engineers own and learn from their mistakes for years. He talks about how to stop trying to be perfect and start being human (2:50). In the debut of a segment