ASCE Plot Points Podcast

It's an enticing question to ponder. What would Robert Moses do? How would he navigate the infrastructure landscape of 2022?
John Williams, the CEO of Autocase and board chair for the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, discusses in today's finale of a three-part series.
Williams is speaking at the 2021 ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure, Dec. 7, in a session called "Post-Black-Swan-Event Infrastructure: Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future."

What is anti-fragile infrastructure? And what's the business case for its design?
John Williams, the CEO of Autocase and board chair for the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, answers both questions in today's second part of a three-part series.
Williams is speaking at the 2021 ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure, Dec. 7, in a session called "Post-Black-Swan-Event Infrastructure: Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future."

John Williams is speaking at the 2021 ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure, Dec. 7, in a session called "Post-Black-Swan-Event Infrastructure: Lessons Learned and Plans for the Future."So, today kicks off a special three-part series, Williams, the CEO of Autocase and board chair for the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, talks about some of the key ideas from the session. But the conversation also becomes almost a roadmap toward a new civil engineering philosophy for 2022, from Robert Moses to modern ideas of sustainable infrastructure.

The holiday season is a great time to catch up on podcasts, and bridge engineer Luis Duque, P.E., M.ASCE, has a great podcast for your queue.
 
It's called Engineering Our Future, and he talks about the show on Episode 94 of ASCE Plot Points.

Mel Butcher is someone who believes that, as she says, "Everyone has something to offer this world to make it a better place."
It's the driving philosophy behind Underdog Engineers, her new community-based learning space for early career engineers.
A group lead in Carollo Engineers' Private Sector Group, Butcher talks today on Episode 93 of ASCE Plot Points about Underdog and what young civil engineers should be doing to find the right job for them.

Community has been the driving force in Donya Amiri's career.
Especially now.
After more than a decade working in the public sector, Amiri has started her own consulting firm, AIM Professional Engineers in Northern California.
On episode 92 of ASCE Plot Points, Amiri talks about her new business and how her childhood in Afghanistan helped shape her civil engineering dreams. Plus, the ASCE student ambassadors are back to talk sustainability.

Civil engineering is a tricky balancing act between relying on what has worked for infrastructure in the past and predicting what infrastructure will need decades into the future.
A new book prepared by the ASCE Task Committee on Future Weather and Climate Extremes, Impacts of Future Weather and Climate Extremes on United States Infrastructure: Assessing and Prioritizing Adaptation Actions, helps civil engineers thread that needle.
On episode 91 of ASCE Plot Points, co-authors Jason Giovannettone, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, and Mari Tye, Ph.D., C.Eng, M.ASCE, talk about their new book and how it can help civil engineers make intelligent infrastructure decisions for the future.

Claudia Gunsch is the Theodore S. Kennedy Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University, where she also serves as the associate dean of research and infrastructure for the Pratt School of Engineering. She says her favorite part of engineering is "defining the problem, solving the problem." In a sense, it's the same process she's applied to finding the right career path of her.
On episode 90 of ASCE Plot Points, Gunsch speaks with Brianne Duncan and Lauren Redfern of the EWRI Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee.

Katie Bowman, P.E., M.ASCE, is a graduate research assistant at the University of Memphis, vice president of the ASCE West Tennessee Branch, and a newly elected governor-at-large for Region 4.
None of it has come easily, though.
On episode 89 of ASCE Plot Points, Bowman talks about the twists and turns that have led her to career happiness.

One of the most useful aspects of ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure is the way it takes in a lot of complex information and turns it into a very simple, easy-to-understand grade.
So for instance, the rail category received a grade of B on the 2021 edition of the report card.
But of course as with anything, it’s important to dig a little deeper. On episode 88 of ASCE Plot Points, Ian Jefferies, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, helps to break down the nuance behind that grade.