ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Shirley Clark, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, D.EWRI, M.ASCE, is a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State Harrisburg and vice president of ASCE's Environmental and Water Resources Institute. Recently, her work has included research into the potential connections between wastewater and COVID.
In episode 107 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Clark talks with guest hosts Brianne Duncan and Wendy Cohen, of the EWRI Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee, about her work and career.

ASCE launches the Future World Vision desktop app today, Feb. 22, at the new Future World Vision website.
In episode 106 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Jimmy Bennett, a project engineer in Minneapolis who is among the core team working on Future World Vision from the outset, talks about the new platform and how Future World Vision can help engineers expand their work every day to incorporate vital big picture thinking.

Vatsal Shah, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, M.ASCE, had a nugget of wisdom he’d sometimes to refer to: “Change is uncomfortable, but you only grow when you’re uncomfortable.”
The philosophy certainly was put to the test these last two years, as the pandemic and a family health scare turned his life upside-down.
In episode 105 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Shah discusses how the last two years have reframed his priorities and his career.

Maxx Taga is an onsite integration manager and facility manager for NASA in Lompoc, California.
It's the latest step in a career that has taken many twists and turns but is firmly a product of Taga's make-your-own-luck approach. If he wants to know about something, he finds out. If he wants to do something, he tries it. Even if it's new. Even if it's intimidating at first.
In episode 104 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Taga discusses his career and how other young civil engineers might make some luck of their own in their career pursuits.
It's the latest step in a career that has taken many twists and turns but is firmly a product of Taga's make-your-own-luck approach. If he wants to know about something, he finds out. If he wants to do something, he tries it. Even if it's new. Even if it's intimidating at first.
In episode 104 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Taga discusses his career and how other young civil engineers might make some luck of their own in their career pursuits.

RoadBotics won five awards at the 2018 ASCE Innovation Contest.
Since then, the company has only grown.
In episode 103 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, RoadBotics CEO Ben Schmidt talks about his company and how he's navigated the pandemic and continued innovating through a changing industry.

Natalie Palmquist is unique.
She has had a plan for her life’s work since she was a teenager. And she’s living out that plan.
She graduated from Auburn University with a degree in civil engineering, got her master’s in international development studies at the University of Grenoble Alpes in France, and recently started a position with Samaritan’s Purse.
The driving force behind all of this? Her faith as a Christian.
In episode 102 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Palmquist talks about how faith and civil engineering intersect.

Aimee Corn wasn't sure where her career would lead, even after she fell in love with civil engineering.
But she's happy with the way it worked out: dams.
Corn, P.E., M.ASCE, is a civil structural engineer for Gannett Fleming in Denver, Colorado. She's also in her fourth term on the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute Board of Governors.
In episode 101 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, she talks about her career, why she loves dams, and where she sees the industry going.

Applied research is one of the most exciting topics in all of civil engineering. It also can be very complicated to secure the necessary funding.
In episode 100 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Monique Head, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, associate professor and associate chair in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Delaware, talks about what the funding landscape looks like in light of the recent bipartisan infrastructure law.

It's one thing to acknowledge that the recent bipartisan infrastructure law will change the civil engineering industry. But, looking deeper, what do those changes mean for the everyday work of civil engineers? How will their lives and careers change?
In episode 99 of ASCE Plot Points, Del Shannon, P.E., M.ASCE, principal and senior vice president for Schnabel Engineering, discusses those potential changes as well as the skills civil engineers may need to further develop to better align themselves with the new work that will be coming from the law's infrastructure investment.

Kristina Swallow, P.E., Pres.18.ASCE, worked for years to advocate with ASCE for infrastructure investment. Now, as director of the Nevada Department of Transportation, she is excited about the opportunity presented by the recent bipartisan infrastructure law to improve her home state.
In episode 98 of ASCE Plot Points, Swallow discusses the various ways the new law will reshape the civil engineering profession. And the student ambassadors discuss their favorite engineers in civil engineering history.