ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Diniece Mendes is director for freight mobility at the New York City Department of Transportation and serves on the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute’s Board of Governors.She’s also – as of this spring – a movie star.Mendes is one of five ASCE members to feature in the new IMAX film Cities of the Future, playing on giant screens around the world.In episode 166 of ASCE Plot Points, Mendes talks about the movie experience, living and working in New York, and what she sees as the most important things that civil engineers need to do to bring the cities of the future to life.
 

Los Angeles is No. 1 on the 2024 list of ASCE Best Places for Civil Engineers.
That’s three straight years for L.A., if you’re keeping track at home.
So what’s the city’s secret to success? What’s so special about the civil engineering scene there?
Ruwanka Purasinghe, P.E., M.ASCE, civil engineering associate for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and president-elect of the ASCE Los Angeles Section, has some answers.
In episode 165 of ASCE Plot Points, Purasinghe talks about, yes, what makes Los Angeles such a great place for civil engineers.

Aaron Shavel is New York through and through. Born and raised there – and now works as a project manager for TCE, specializing in rail infrastructure.And New York breeds a certain kind of toughness.Where did Shavel learn his civil engineering toughness?From his civil engineering mom.
In episode 164 of ASCE Plot Points, Shavel talks about growing up around his mom’s civil engineering projects as a kid and why he thinks now is a golden age for civil engineering.

Erin Novini has blended chemical engineering with environmental engineering as an engineering specialist for consulting firm Trihydro since 2005.And in that nearly two-decade span, she’s seen sustainability develop in the corporate world quite a bit.In the conclusion of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee’s sustainability miniseries, Novini discusses her career, her work, and how she sees sustainability playing in the corporate space.

It's part two of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee’s sustainability mini-series on the ASCE Plot Points podcast.Christopher Chini started his undergrad studies at Texas A&M majoring in computer science. But found he wanted to make a more tangible, direct impact on communities and on the environment.Today, he’s a research scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Labs and a former chair of the EWRI Sustainability Committee.And in episode 162 of ASCE Plot Points, Chini talks with guest hosts Brianne Duncan and Wendy Cohen about his sustainability work.

This Earth Day, the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee is a launching a sustainability mini-series on ASCE Plot Points.Three podcasts this week; three different sustainability professionals discussing how they’ve navigated their careers to keep issues of sustainability at the forefront.Up first is Emily Grubert, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, associate professor of sustainable energy policy in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

Is civil engineering leadership about people? Or is civil engineering leadership about technical expertise?Yes.Civil engineering leadership is all of that and more in 2024.Lauren Taylor is a great example of civil engineering leader in the modern era, blending people skills with project management.Taylor Taylor works for WSP, based in Austin, Texas, as the Texas planning and advisory services lead.Last month, she was named an ENR Top 20 under 40 young professional.In episode 160 of ASCE Plot Points, Taylor discusses her approach to civil engineering leadership and why she loves it.

“We all want to do something that matters,” Isabella Salgado says.She is a civil engineer for the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering and the social activities chair for the ASCE Los Angeles Younger Member Forum.And one way she’s found recently to connect to something larger is advocating for the profession as part of the ASCE Legislative Fly-In.In episode 159 of ASCE Plot Points, Salgado talks about her eye-opening trip to Washington, DC (including meeting one of her idols), and how she’s following in the footsteps of her civil engineering mother, Minerva Rodriguez.

Travis St. Louis and Michael Palmer are evangelists of sorts for modular construction and design.Each took their backgrounds in architectural engineering and moved into the modular construction practice from different angles – St. Louis on more of the civil engineering side as an enclosure engineer and associate principal for Simpson, Gumpertz, and Heger based in Oakland, California; and Palmer more on the business side as head of strategy and real estate for the Volumetric Building Companies, headquartered in Philadelphia.In episode 158 of ASCE Plot Points, St. Louis and Palmer discuss all things modular, and why it might be the future of construction.

Alyssa Sooklal, P.E., M.ASCE, has accomplished a lot early in her career.She works as a water resources engineer for McCormick Taylor in Baltimore, and serves as president of ASCE’s Maryland Younger Members Group.But it hasn’t come without moments of frustration or insecurity.Office politics are a real thing, especially when you’re a woman in the civil engineering industry – and especially if you’re a woman sensing competition with other women in your industry.It’s not always easy to navigate.In episode 157 of ASCE Plot Points, Sooklal discusses how she’s worked to avoid those situations and focused on building partnerships not rivalries.