ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Civil engineering careers can take many shapes.
You can work for a giant firm. You can work for a smaller firm.
But what about those medium-sized firms?
On episode 121 of the ASCE Plot Points, Sam Potts, a transportation engineer in Los Angeles, California, details the benefits of working for a medium-sized firm.

Society members recently voted Marsia Geldert Murphey as the ASCE 2023 president-elect.
Clearly, her accomplishments and vision for the organization spoke volumes.
But what many members might not know is that six years ago, Geldert-Murphey wasn’t running for ASCE office; she was just hoping to get out of bed, after an accident left her in a coma.
In episode 120 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Geldert-Murphey reflects on how that accident changed her life and her journey into ASCE leadership.

The ASCE Society-wide concrete canoe competition returns this weekend for the first time since 2019 – June 3-5 at Louisiana Tech University.
In episode 119 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, two senior project leads – Ryan Carrusca and Natalia Hoeppner or the University of British Columbia and Lipscomb University respectively – talk about their teams’ journeys and hopes for the competition. 

May is National Wildfire Awareness Month.
Doug Taylor knows. The former president of both the ASCE San Francisco Section and Fresno Branch spent six years as the Region 9 disaster preparedness chair. He's helped get civil engineers trained and certified to serve as site inspectors in the aftermath of wildfires.
In episode 118 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Taylor talks about how wildfires continue to affect his homestate of California and what civil engineers can do to help.

Holly Piza, P.E., M.ASCE, is the research and development director at Mile High Flood District in Denver and the 2022 president of ASCE’s Environmental and Water Resources Institute.
In episode of 117 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Piza talks with guest hosts Brianne Duncan and Wendy Cohen of the EWRI Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee about her career path.

As project design and construction continue to develop and change, the importance of quality control only increases. Tara L. Cavalline, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, Dennis Morian, P.E., M.ASCE, and Clifford J. Schexnayder, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, have authored a book to help engineers keep pace with changing construction landscape. It's called "Construction Quality in the Alternate Project Delivery Environment," and, in episode 116 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, the authors discuss some of the key points from their research.

ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute’s Technical Committee on CAV Impacts has prepared a new ASCE publication called Disruptive Emerging Transportation Technologies.
In episode 115 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, one of the book's co-editors Heng Wei, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a professor of transportation engineering at the University of Cincinnati, discusses some of the key technologies and their implications for civil engineers.

Tanesa Kassa is a structural detail designer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
That wasn't exactly where her career started, though.
She's been adding new skills and learning new technology for two decades, adapting her skillset to the changing engineering environment.
In episode 114 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Kassa shares her journey and discusses the importance of being a lifelong learner.

Elyssa Dixon, P.E., M.ASCE, ​is an environmental engineer who is very active in ASCE – she is the chair of ASCE’s Committee on Younger Members and the presidet-elect of the Seattle Section. And more recently her focus has been on mental health. She started her own business – called Fleece and Forests – to share her training as a mindfulness and meditation coach.
In episode 113 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Dixon discusses stress in the civil engineering profession and some straegies specifically geared for civil engineers to help mitigate anxiety.

Last December, the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure brought sustainabilty thought leaders from around the world together. And now, ASCE has published a book collecting selected papers from the conference.
In episode 112 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, the book's co-editor Michael Bloom, P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE, discusses the special collection and what he calls a "tipping point" for the state of sustainable infrastructure.