Well, it’s that time of the quarter again. Time for the Moment to be hitting the presses and being distributed to you. There are a lot of interesting articles in this quarter’s issue. I would like to thank everyone who submitted an article and encourage everyone to continue to submit to the Moment.
I would appreciate the seniors submitting an article for next quarter’s Moment about their Senior Design Project. Please give a brief description of what is needed, your progress so far, and your opinion of the project.
I would like to thank Kathy Nicoson for all her help. Thank you to everyone who submitted and helped edit this edition to make it better than my previous issue.
Tim Rohe
Moment Editor
Welcome back everyone. Just in case some of you haven’t heard, I am here to inform you that you have returned this year to the top ASCE Student Chapter in the nation. Numero Uno! The best of the best! The top dog! Alright, I’ll quit now. But I do want to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone who has been an active participant in making the Cecil T. Lobo chapter an example for other student chapters to follow. Good work everyone.
Now on to the business of bringing the Ridgeway Award here again next year. Since school began in September the chapter has only participated in a few noteworthy activities, but that is all about to change. Our annual informational meeting was held Thursday, October 29 at 2:30 p.m. and gave us the chance to explain to all the underclassmen what exactly we have to offer; hopefully, this will lead to the recruitment of the members of this year’s steel bridge and concrete canoe teams. The session was immediately followed by a presentation on the topic of heavy timber’s place in today’s market by Ben Brungraber, Ph.D. We will also be offering presentations by Cives Steel, Dr. Dennis Sapp, PE, Chris Tull of the American Concrete Institute and Kerry Phillips of Warehouse Equipment, Inc before the quarter ends on November 13.
On November 4, Dr. Jones will be taking a group of interested students to Bloomington, IN to visit the EPA Superfund site and on November 7 everyone is invited to participate in a Habitat for Humanity workday here in town. Once we return from Thanksgiving Break, we have one speaker, a Habitat for Humanity workday, and the Annual Winter Banquet already scheduled. The possibility of a High School recruitment visit and the renovation of a damaged stage at the Hyte Community Center beginning during the three weeks before Christmas Break are in the works, as well.
Since this is my last President’s Corner before the torch is passed, I would like to thank everyone for their continued commitment to ASCE and our activities and wish you all success in your ventures beyond the classroom.
Civil Pride!
Ben Merkling
ASCE Student Chapter President
I asked the sophomore class to write articles about what they did this summer and how it related to their chosen field and/or major. The articles I received from them are below.
Working for a General Contractor
By Austin Holcomb
Over the past summer I worked for a general contractor in my home town. I have worked for this contractor for five years now and I feel that I am developing a fair knowledge of the business. At the beginning of my employment several summers ago I was nothing more than a strong back and young legs to tote and fetch. As my experience grew, my boss continued to expand on the number of tasks he assigned me to do. With the skills I had learned in surveying and my ability to use Cadkey, my boss was more than pleased to have someone on staff that he felt was capable of helping design floor plans and draw plot maps.
The company I worked for was mostly involved in remodeling projects as opposed to new construction. Many things are involved in planning a remodeling project long before the first shovel of dirt is moved. After a customer expresses interest in a project, plans and elevation views must be drawn to give the customer some idea of what the project is going to look like. If the customer is pleased with the drawings, several permits are needed before work can begin.
Applications for permits such as septic, well, and general construction must be accompanied by plot plans, floor plans, and elevation drawings. This is where I came into play. I would go to the county courthouse and get a previous land survey. I would then go out to the site and locate the well and septic and mark them on the drawing. After that was completed, I would go back to the office and put together a package to take to the zoning board and the plan commission.
By preparing these packages for customers and for review by a county organization, I feel it has helped me to develop written communication skills. In the future I hope to find employment in the construction management field and possibly operate my own business some day. I hope that the work I did over the summer will help me when I present a proposal to a customer for a possible contract. It should also help me to learn what I need to include in applications for permits and how to best organize them for simplicity of approval. I feel my job over the summer helped me to learn more about the paperwork involved in the construction industry.
The Department of Public Works
by Bob Ladisich
Over the summer I worked for the Department of Public Works in my hometown, Sauk Village, IL. While there, I did many things including grass cutting and assorted manual labor. A few things I did get to do related to civil engineering were basic street repair and sewer maintenance.
Street repair was one of the things I did this summer that relates to my major. This included tearing out sections of the streets that needed repairing, then filling in and re-asphalting where water main breaks had happened. After the old asphalt was removed, we would level out the fill underneath leaving 3 inches of space on top. This area would be filled with hot asphalt and then compacted. This was the basic process I helped with over the summer doing street repair.
I also did sewer maintenance over the summer. This was rather easy, but necessary work. I would jet the sewers with a high pressure water tank with an attached hose running into the sewer. The water would come out at a pressure of about 1500 pounds per square inch. The pressure from the water would carry the hose through the pipeline so that any blockage that might be forming would be cleared.
By Christopher L. Bauer
Most of my summer was spent working at the Rose-Hulman Sports and Recreation Center (SRC). I worked at the SRC full time as the weight room monitor and a lifeguard. This job was solely for the purpose of making money. Just under two weeks of my summer were spent, though, doing work that was very closely related to my chosen career.
I took my second mission trip to Honduras, Central America, during last summer. While in Honduras, I worked for a mission that owns property in two extremely poor colonies in San Pedro Sula, a city in Honduras. On this property, the mission uses volunteer labor, such as ours, to build schools, churches, medical clinics, do landscaping, teach the schools and churches, and interact with the people. I was able to also utilize my skills in Spanish to serve as a translator.
My career goal is to move down to Central America, or the Caribbean, and work as a Civil Engineer and translator. During my trip over the summer, I was able to see many similar construction, landscaping, and road projects, such as a Civil Engineer would work on in these environments. I was also able to practice my translating skills, and interactive skills with those of a very different culture.
I am also fully aware that if I chose an environment such as this for my career, my salary will possibly be considerably lower, than it would be in other conditions. This does not concern me at all. We did not get paid while we were on this trip. We only received enough money to eat and a place to stay. When I graduate, as long as I make enough money to live, and I am where I want to be, I will be happy, just as I was in Honduras.
by David Christmas
Summertime is the most enjoyable season of the year with the exception of fall. Though I barely got more sleep than when I am at school, I had a blast.
As usual the start of the summer felt pretty slow. I began work on my parents’ house just as planned. I cleared brush, and hauled several loads of refuse to the dump. This is not to say that my parents are total slobs, the property was just trashed before they bought it. Before I could get any leveling of their yard done, I had to repair our 1949 9N tractor. After hauling several dump-truck loads of dirt to the property, I used the tractor to level and slope out the yard. This experience gave me a feel for working with contours.
My next job was to build my parents a small deck and patio on the front of the house. While building the patio, I learned a new technique (for me). I used a base of 4 inches of #53 crushed stone. After spreading a sufficient base, I compacted the rock and it formed a hard base. Next, I spread a 1-inch layer of sand on the base and then laid concrete paving stones over that. This technique is similar to the one used for building highways.
After completing the patio, I went to work for a local contractor. The job that he gave me was basically a laborer’s position. When his work came to a standstill, my father hired me again to build an attached garage onto his house. My father-in-law Bill borrowed a laser level and we used it to set our construction batter boards. The creation of level planes is crucial to many areas of civil engineering. Digging the footers and pouring the footings was fun. Bill laid up the corners and I laid all the foundation blocks in between with a string. Then I set the anchor bolts and we poured the floor. From this stage on, things began to speed up. I framed up the walls on the floor and my family helped me raise them. My neighbor Tom was gracious enough to help me set all the pre-made trusses one evening. I was glad to gain some experience with pre-fab trusses because they are so common in our construction industry today. In addition, I had to work with the manufacturer so that each truss was designed with high efficiency and no waste material. Interestingly enough, he showed me that the computer program he uses to customize truss design incorporates many of the formulas and ideas that I learned in my statics class.
Well, by this time, the summer was winding down. Somehow, (with the help of my wife and my parents whose main job was to purchase and deliver materials to the jobsite!), I finished the roof, trimmed out the overhangs, installed the garage doors, and finished out the exterior in vinyl siding all before time to come back to school. All in all, I would have to say that it was the most enjoyable summer I’ve ever had.
by Dusty Richards
This past summer was a very interesting and exciting time for me because I had several once in a lifetime experiences. These experiences included travelling to Russia for three weeks and to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO for two weeks. While travelling, I did many new things and met many interesting people.
I traveled to Russia with the help of Dr. Peter Priest, a professor at Rose-Hulman. He organizes groups each summer to travel to Russia and see the sights, while also absorbing her history. I spent nine days in St. Petersburg, and had several exciting adventures. These included seeing several palaces formerly occupied by czars, museums, and the many tourist shops. After our stay in St. Petersburg, we traveled by train to Moscow. While in Moscow, we lived with different families and experienced the life of a normal Russian. We walked in Red Square, and visited Lenin’s Tomb, the Kremlin, and St. Basil’s Cathedral, whose onion domes are known world wide as the symbol of Russia.
After an amazing but tiring three weeks in Russia, the trip home was well received. Unfortunately, I had to leave for Colorado the day after arriving home, so I didn’t get much down time. In Colorado I had a great time flying sailplanes at the Academy while working and hanging out with the cadets. I got a great sense of what life at the Academy was like, and what kinds of people I will be working with when I graduate and join the United States Air Force. It was an amazing time for me, because it was probably the only time in my life I will be the solo pilot in a plane. When participating in the program I was in, the ultimate goal was to fly a sailplane solo, which I accomplished on the final day of training. It was a great feeling of success, and something I can be proud of my whole life.
Although I did not actually "work" this summer, I feel the experiences I had were once in a lifetime events, and worth not having a job for. I will always be able to carry these experiences with me no matter where else my life takes me.
By Glenn Ritzi
Over the past summer, I worked for Brackney Inc., a general contractor located in Brookville, Indiana, about one half hour away from Cincinnati, Ohio. Brackney Inc. is one of the largest water and sewer line contractors in southeast Indiana. As an employee, I did many different things depending on the situation.
For the first three weeks, I was assigned to work in the office. I read blueprints, specification books, and checked the engineering figures. I called and got price quotes on pipe and other accessories. After the quotes were all in, I went to the owner, Mark Brackney, who helped me bid the job. After we had our numbers, I plugged them into the bidding spreadsheet and had the final bid.
For a month or so, I was out working in the field. The sewer and water line job was located in Connersville, Indiana and the engineer was M.D. Wessler and Associates, Marty Wessler, the owner, is a graduate of Rose-Hulman. I helped set a lift station for sanitary sewer, lay pipe out of the lift station, and make a directional bore under a state highway. I was also in the ditch laying water line, putting on fittings, and setting fire hydrants.
For the rest of the summer, I got stuck on the seeding crew. This crew went back to previous jobs and smoothed out the ditch, picked up the rocks, seeded, fertilized, and strawed the yards and fields the old line went through. This was not a fun job and was a hard one. The days were long and hot with a rake in one hand and a shovel in the other. A little physical work is not bad for anyone and will give me an added incentive to work harder this year at school.
While working at Brackney’s, I did use a few skills learned in my freshman year at Rose-Hulman. While in the office, I, of course, had to read blueprints to bid the job which I got some experience of in Surveying last spring. While setting the lift station and working on the directional bore, we used a transit to assure us of grade (a transit is also used constantly while running gravity sanitary sewers and setting manholes). However, no calculus or any such hard arithmetic was required.
My overall learning experience of the summer was huge. It helped me understand how water and sewer line is actually run and the costly expense of it. It also taught me that engineers and inspectors are not always right. I plan to work at Brackney, Inc. throughout my summers as a college student and get a job in this field. If I stay at Brackney’s and learn the ropes of water and sanitary sewer line, it will be a huge advantage when I graduate because this is the field I plan to go into.
Terre Haute City Engineer’s Office
By Harold Plance
This summer I experienced my first real experience in the civil engineering field working for the city of Terre Haute in the engineering department. Currently I am in my sophomore year working towards my civil degree with an environmental minor. While working for the city I did a little bit of everything, but the main job I had was inspecting sewer laterals and making sure they met city specs before they were covered. It was a learning experience reading the specs and seeing how they were applied in the field.
When I wasn’t out inspecting laterals, I was used in the office on numerous occasions to read plans for people, show them where the sewer lines ran from their house to the street, and explaining specs to contractors before they installed sewer lines. The final thing I was able to do was survey some billboards to determine their height and check plans in the field before the job started to ensure everything was accounted for.
All in all, I’d say it was a productive summer going over all the things I had learned my freshman year and learning a few more things before my sophomore year. After last summer I’m definitely looking forward to next summer already.
by Ike Deburger
Last summer my job was filled with a diverse range of activities that related to my chosen career, Civil Engineering. I worked for the Ripley County Highway Department located in the Southeast corner of Indiana. We normally worked five to six days a week, and the experience I gained proved valuable in my pursuit of a resume building summer job.
I spent the first part of the summer working on various projects at the Ripley County Fairgrounds. I was on a crew of six workers that improved the grounds with a budget of more than $200,000. It was very exciting to be involved in a job this large in a county of less than 25,000 people. The major project was to reinforce the grandstands, which is over one-hundred years old, and needed major structural repairs. Many of the old oak beams were sagging or rotten. We spent all of June replacing beams until the building was up to code.
The next part of my summer I was out on the roads. I did a number of jobs that ranged from flagging traffic to operating a payloader or backhoe. We built one new stretch of road that covered approximately one half of a mile, and repaved several others. I was able to see these processes from all of their aspects. I might drive a chipper box one day or ride in an oil distributor the next. I think my time working on the roads has been the most valuable learning experience for me.
I hope my job this summer will help me in my future endeavors in the engineering field. I truly enjoyed the work I did, and hope to get the same enjoyment out of future jobs. I wouldn’t hesitate to return to my old job this coming summer, but I am planning on exploring all of my options before making any commitments. Overall, I believe my summer job was an excellent experience for me.
White River Environmental Partnership
By John Doty
The summer of 1998 offered multiple job opportunities to many students. I was one of the opportunistic individuals. During spring break of last year I had an interview with the White River Environmental Partnership (WREP) which is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the nation. This company, which was later bought out by United Water, offered me summer employment. Over the course of the summer I was involved in many projects that revolved mostly around the field of environmental engineering.
In the beginning, I had to get to know how the process worked. This is certainly more interesting than one might imagine. The process of breaking down waste products and cleaning water involves a multi-step process that, in one step, even has microorganisms that eat the sludge. I could go on and on about the process, but I would go too in-depth.
After learning how the plant operated, I was put on a project for a new Oxygen-Nitrification System (ONS). This system takes air and converts it to almost pure liquid oxygen that feeds the microorganisms. The existing ONS is about fifteen years old and near the end of its expected usefulness. My duties were to dimension any new additions to existing drawings. These drawings were used in a booklet that was sent to different bidders. The bidders are to use this data in their evaluations on how much a new system would cost to be put into the existing area. The project will turn out to cost somewhere in the vicinity of 3 to 4 million dollars.
After about two weeks of working on this bidders form, I was put onto another project while the forms were being mailed out. This project involved some elevation surveying and sewer analysis. Another intern from IUPUI and I were put in charge of this project. It consisted of contacting a Japanese company (CORE) that makes and tests sewer scanning equipment. This new technology has been tested in twelve other cities within the United States. It consists of a scanner (similar to a desktop scanner) and a closed circuit television camera. The CORE engineers did not speak English very well, so communication turned out to be slow. CORE came in and scanned approximately 10,000 ft. in Indianapolis. After the field work was completed, a write up of the project was necessary in order for the rest of the associates in the project to tally their results and work out the bugs in the system. Along with the other intern, I was in charge of writing up this formal report. The end of the summer stopped my presence in the project.
The most interesting part of this summer job with United Water had to be the GPS inventory project. The city of Indianapolis purchased a GPS system from a company called Trimble to use in a pilot program for inventory of manholes, curb inlets, and other sewer structures. Again with the other intern, I went out in the field and collected points with the GPS system and brought them back to the office where the data was downloaded into a software package. After this process was completed, the data was then shipped to the city to be put into the GIS system. The GIS system is a software package that has all of the structures of the city of Indianapolis as layers which can be brought up and made into maps for the field crews. Towards the end of the summer I prepared a PowerPoint presentation to give to people that gave us the $10,000 for the equipment. This was to show that the project was not just a waste of money and that it proved to be much faster than the previous method which was being done by hand.
Over all, my summer employment opportunity turned out to be interesting and beneficial at the same time. I have been offered a job again there next year if I wish. I truly thank United Water for the courtesy and acceptance of me into there family.
By Josh Callahan
This summer I worked on several projects that could be related to my chosen career. I worked construction jobs all summer long. I did any job from roofing to interior remodeling. I placed concrete and did some minor landscaping. All of these things are necessary to build roads and other structures. One day I hope to be a contractor or do some cost analyses for large construction companies.
Since I am doing a lot of this kind of work now, I will be able to better visualize what materials will me needed and their average costs. I will also be able to tell if there is something missing because I will know approximately how much of the material there should be on a certain job.
I would also like to be able to start my own business by the time I turn forty. I would like to do minor construction such as interior remodeling and maybe build a few houses. I also helped my boss build his house over the summer. This is the third house in two summers I have helped to build.
I plan to continue working at my current job next summer unless I find an internship or co-op by next spring. My goal is to have an internship before my senior year.
USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service
By Josh Hudson
Last summer I had a chance to work with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service in Washington, Indiana. During the summer I was taught how to use some digital surveying equipment, how to read some types of soil maps, and how to design several types of farm drainage systems. On most days during the job, I would work closely with one or two civil engineering technicians, while on other days, I would work with a professional civil engineer.
On many days, I had a chance to survey the elevations of several farms around southern Indiana. In doing these types of jobs, I learned quite a bit about using a total station and shooting elevations. I also learned more about shooting elevations with more primitive equipment when the total station was not needed. This was very helpful, because I know that these skills will be needed in the future when I start my civil engineering career.
During most of the rainy days of last summer, no fieldwork could be done, so I stayed in the office doing map reading and paper work. These were the days when I learned to read and interpret soils maps of several southern Indiana counties. This was very interesting because I learned about some of the various types of soils in Indiana and some of their properties. I had to deal with these soil types and properties in the design of ponds and other water structures.
I think the surveying and map reading skills I learned last summer act as good foundations for future jobs in civil engineering. I know I will have to use them in real world situations, so I am very glad I had the opportunity to get a good background on these skills during last summer.
By Kelly McAtee
This past summer I worked as an intern to the city engineer in my hometown of St. Helens, Oregon. I had one main project to work on, but also a number of smaller projects on the side that I needed to complete within certain time periods.
My primary job was to work on the city's new GIS system using AutoCad Map. A consultant company had done the aerial mapping the summer before and nothing had been kept up to date or done since that time. In addition to many objects not being mapped as a result of vegetation cover there were also around ten new developments either finished or under construction. As a result of these two things I spent a fair amount of time locating and inputting new data into the program from the field. Components of the sanitary sewer, storm sewer, and water systems made up most of this data. I would then return to the office and use both the data from the field and the plans on file to create lines or symbols representing the information and then attach attribute files containing vital information to them.
Smaller projects I worked on included overseeing a contracted asphalt crack sealing project for a week, determining problem intersections in the city in need of new or additional lighting, starting an operation and maintenance manual for a new pump station, and creating a new filing system for the As-Built plans, including sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water, roads, and plats. I also occasionally did drafting my boss needed done. Plus, I did calculations for citywide water use and loss, areas of parcels being taken through imminent domain, and areas and volumes of construction materials used for pay requests.
This job relates to my chosen career in many ways. First, I got the chance to work along side and ask question of a professional civil engineer in a government environment. Secondly, I sat in on a number of meetings and spoke with a number of engineers from consultant firms doing jobs for the city. Finally, I gained experienced dealing with and helping the public while being out in the field.
By Kenny Owens
Last summer I worked as a foreman for my father. He owns Amsteel Fence Co. in Indianapolis, In. I was in charge of a crew consisting of 1 to 5 other people. At the beginning of the summer I did jobs for residential customers. During the last part of the summer I was promoted to a commercial foreman. As a commercial foreman, I was now in charge of bigger jobs and had more people working under me.
I fell this job was related to my field because I learned about taking control of a project and making sure everyone did there job. I learned a great deal about the use of equipment on a construction site. I was given a chance to order material and schedule jobs. This job also made me familiar with reading contracts and following them. Overall this was a great experience.
By Kyle Kindle
The InterDesign Group is an architectural and engineering design and planning firm. The firm is made up of architects and engineers, with a total of fifty employees. IDG handles all the design and planning needs of an owner. The firm builds schools, college buildings, senior citizen housing, libraries, and other projects. Their offices are located in Indianapolis.
I was offered a summer internship during the spring of my freshman year and started on June 1. I was placed directly under a Construction Administrator, Arlend Packard. I moved from project to project under Mr. Packard. I traveled with different engineers to Chicago, Lafayette, Lawrenceburg, Terre Haute, and many other places around Indy, checking on the progress of projects, and ironing out changes and problems. I had many opportunities to sit in on meetings and learn about the business and management ends of the construction industry.
I also had the opportunity to change several light bulbs and staple many sets of blueprints. The highlight of my summer was receiving one paid holiday, where I traveled to Dayton, OH and played in a soccer game. We won 3-1.
I hope to attend law school after graduating from Rose-Hulman and enter into a career involving law and engineering. This summer gave me an excellent chance to learn about this career path from an interesting point of view. The people I worked with were a great source knowledge on the subject. I also had the chance to read about actual cases and view documents from seminars on construction law. Working at IDG offered me a wonderful initial experience with the job world and I would like to thank them very much for the opportunity.
By Maceo Lewis
I consider myself very fortunate for the work experience I received this past summer. I was able to gain an internship at one of the nations top engineering consulting firms. The firm is Burgess & Niple, Ltd. It just so happens that a part owner of the company and the executive director is Owen March. He is a Rose grad from way back. Burgess & Niple was in need of assistance in their Water & Waste-Water division. Within the department we had several projects in progress. The jobs ranged in their stages. Some were in construction, in engineering bid phase, preliminary design, and final design. The main project I was placed on was for the city of Bucyrus. Here the project mainly involved renovations to their existing Waste-Water Treatment Plant. The work I would be doing heavily involved AutoCad. Not having any experience with the software, I took the first two days to learn. Once I had a general knowledge, they put me to work. The past set of plans needed to be put onto our network drives so I did most of that drafting. I got to do a little design with the placement of new machinery into the buildings. On the side of this job I was put in charge of the analysis of a Trickling Filter for another city. I took data and compiled it into spreadsheets and then related it to different formulas to examine how well the filter was doing its job. There were also little calculations here and there to check other engineers’ previous work.
Overall this summer, I had a magnificent time. I learned much more than I could have ever asked for in my first summer as an intern. As a Rose student, Owen March took me under his wing. We had lunch every 2 weeks and he would talk to me about the ropes of the consulting business and engineering in general. He was a real help in my seeing just how everything works within the company and likewise within other firms. This summer with Burgess & Niple, Ltd. helped me realize a consulting career is definitely where I am headed. Next year I will return hoping to gain even more.
The Indiana Department of Transportation
By Mark Shields
Last summer, I worked for the state of Indiana’s Department of Transportation. The Indiana Department of Transportation is responsible for the maintenance of travel ways throughout the state. The state employs engineers, inspectors, and maintenance crews to perform these tasks.
I was hired as a highway engineer assistant. I was responsible for watching and inspecting construction techniques and equipment. Among other duties, I was to relay contractor inquiries to the engineer, take weigh tickets, and measure removal. I assisted in the inspection of some of the material delivered, such as concrete pipe, structural backfill, and precast structures.
The contract I worked on was R-23506. This contract was responsible for the widening of Wabash Avenue, U.S. 40, from 36th to the railroad trestle on the east side of Terre Haute. Flooding through the area is to be elevated by a storm sewer with drainage structures and surface drains.
This job involved several engineering aspects. One was making sure the flow line was correct. This was to make sure waste would not back up and not drain properly. Another aspect was in the construction and placing of strain poles. These poles had to have a minimum foundation and not interrupt any current utility. The widening of the road also had to be made to support the force of traffic and other natural stresses.
By Matthew Kahle
This past summer I was not able to find a job involving civil engineering because I had the opportunity to go to Germany for five weeks. Although the main purpose of my trip was not for civil engineering, I still saw many civil engineering structures and made a number of observations while I was there.
Construction is big over there right now. The job situation is ripe for civil engineers and construction workers. Especially in the Eastern half of the country where there is tons of construction taking place as cities and states try to rebuild after the years of decay when they were behind the wall. In Berlin especially, the construction cranes cannot be missed because they make up the present skyline. Also because of all the construction, Berlin has set up a so-called "Info Box", a four story building neighboring Potsdammer Platz, detailing all the projects in the city and all the work that is involved.
There is also construction throughout Germany. As I traveled across the German countryside, I noticed that they are in the process of revamping the transportation network. The Autobahn is getting widened and rebuilt in the east, the rail lines are getting replaced all over Germany and they are testing new Electromagnetic "bullet" trains to connect Hamburg and Berlin followed by other cities in the near future.
Besides all the construction one can’t help but notice the architecture over there. In America, we do not really have any buildings or structures over 200 years old. In Germany, they have buildings and structures since 800 AD. Also, Germany has a number of different architectural styles than us. For example, all the old gothic and romantic architecture, the half-timbered houses in south-central Germany, lots of stone construction, and many other styles. There are also no skyscrapers in Germany; instead of skyscrapers, each major city has a huge TV tower.
There are tons of Churches over there. Every city has to have one major Cathedral and at least a dozen or more other churches depending on the size of the city. These churches are quite amazing with tall ceilings, lots of beautiful stonework and are a lot older than we have here (900-1300 AD). But there are so many of them that after a while they all start to look the same unless church architecture really interests you.
Bridges interest me quite a bit, so I paid some attention to the many bridges I crossed in my travels. I noticed all the cable-stayed bridges of various types they use along with the normal steel girder and arch bridges. In Dusseldorf alone, the three main bridges crossing the Rhine River are cable-stayed.
My trip to Germany was an awesome and incredible experience. I learned about the German language, German culture, all the rebuilding going on, and saw many civil engineering structures. I think it would be cool to go over there again, possibly to work during the summer and I hope I get the opportunity.
Piatt County Highway Department
By Matthew Marker
This past summer I worked for the Piatt County Highway Department. Piatt County is located in east central Illinois, where I’m from. The big project I helped with last summer was building a two lane county road on the southeast dividing line of the county. Piatt County is adjacent to Champaign and Douglas counties. This job was a stepping stone for what I will do in the future. I know from being around this kind of job that I do not want to do any kind of road construction in the future.
I worked under two technicians who were full time employees for the county. The technicians and I surveyed the area where the road was going to be built, and wrote on paddles and hubs the fills and cuts of the dirt for the road. We put the paddles at every left and right station on the road at 100 foot intervals. The laborers would use the paddles to know where to add or cut dirt. On days we weren’t surveying or writing on paddles we watched the laborers work on the road. We made sure they were doing what they were suppose to do. After they replaced field tiles under the ground with reinforced concrete pipes we figured out how much it cost by determining the amount of pipe layed and sand backfilled. I mainly helped the technicians whenever they needed a measurement or something. This job was a good learning experience, and I think I’ll probably come back next summer.
By Matthew York
This past summer, I worked on a farm. While not directly related to a career in the civil engineering field, it provided many valuable experiences. For example, I gained experience working with soil conditions, drainage, and management of chemicals and fertilizers in the ground.
With the extremely wet spring, I gained a lot of first hand experience with dealing with soil conditions. I got to see how soil behaved with different levels of moisture in it. I saw how this moisture affected what could be done with the soil. It made me realize what the weather can do to a building project. With the spring planting season at a standstill, I was involved in a lot of excavating work. We did jobs such as running tile lines in fields, and repairing existing tile lines. I also had a chance to deal with chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers and their effect on ground conditions and their effects on drinking water.
Overall, working on a farm was an exciting experience. I’m glad I had the experience. Farming has taught me many things, as well as provided for my family. While not directly related to civil engineering, farming was a wonderful and worthwhile experience.
By Michelle E. Everley
Last spring, I was planning on working at a temporary agency in my town, and taking some humanities courses at the community college. Then one day I received one of the many Rose group list emails, and two weeks later I was going to spend six weeks of my summer in Russia. I was not sure what I had gotten myself into with this sudden change of plans. However, I did know the extra twelve humanities credits would help me no matter what I decided to do.
Well, while I was in Russia I studied the culture and the language. I saw many very beautiful places, and was exposed to a culture very different from my own. I met interesting people, and made good friends. I learned many things from the Russian people. Everything they did, they did with their heart. They had passion for everything in their lives; their friends, their family, and their work.
Their enthusiasm made me really consider what I wanted to pursue as a career. Throughout my freshman year here at Rose-Hulman I was Chemistry major. By the spring of ’98 I had decided to change to Chemical Engineering. I did not really want to attend graduate school, and there were not many opportunities for Chemistry majors with only a Bachelor of Science degrees. Also, because I am attending an ‘engineering school,’ I thought it would be more appropriate if I graduated as an engineer. I never really had any true desire to be a Chemical Engineer.
However, after seeing the passion the Russian students had for the careers they were pursuing, I realized I really had no passion for anything about the degree I was about to spend three more years working for, and the rest of my life using. I began to consider what I really did want to do for a career. The only thing I really knew I wanted to do was to travel. Then I began to look for anything else in my life that was important to me. I began to think about health, and environment. After a little research on the Internet I found myself on the Environmental Protection Agencies’ web page. They had listed a variety of jobs, and the types of people they hire for each of them. Most prominent on the list were Environmental Engineers, and Civil Engineers, but there were also Life Science, Biology, and Chemistry majors.
I decided I wanted to go into something I really had a passion for, and I do have a desire to do some of the jobs listed on the EPA’s web page. As of now, I am planning on majoring in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Environmental, and with minors in Life Science, Chemistry, and Spanish. I hope in three years, and after graduation I will still have the same passion, and enjoy whatever career I find. I have often heard, and strongly believed, ‘if you enjoy what you are doing you will never work a day in your life.’
By Molly Lambert
For my co-op, summer job, I worked for Honda of America in Marysville, OH. This job did not relate to civil engineering because I am a mechanical engineering major taking dynamics through the civil department. However, my job did relate to my field as a mechanical engineer.
While I was at Honda, I worked in the maintenance and engineering group of the stamping department. I worked with the mechanics on repair projects and with the engineers on preventive maintenance solutions. The most useful thing I learned during my time at Honda is what it takes to repair a machine engineers design. This will be beneficial in the future if I ever go into the design of machinery. I will definitely take into consideration how a mechanic is going to work on my machinery when I design equipment in the future. On my job I also learned valuable communication skills between engineers and management. This not only relates to my field, it relates to all engineering fields. When I would present my projects to the managers in my department I would not only have to know what I was talking about, but I also had to explain it in such a manner that non-engineers would understand. If you can’t sell your product it is worthless.
Working at an auto manufacturing company this year also narrowed my decision on what part of the mechanical engineering field I want to work in. I know now that I want to work on designing machinery and not fixing other peoples miss fires. I think I benefited from my job this summer, even though I didn’t do calculations and computer work all day, I learned about industry in general and how companies really run. I think all engineering students should have to spend a significant amount of time in the actual working atmosphere of their field before they ever except a full time position.
By Nathan David Knies
As I was making it through my freshman year, here at Rose, I realized an internship would be most valuable for summer work. Needless to say, when the Career Fair rolled around I went, and tried my best to find a company that suited me. Then, about a month or so later, I received a call from Indianapolis Power and Light (IPL), saying they would like to interview me for a possible internship. I went to Indianapolis for the interview, and then another week or so later, IPL called me back and told me they would like me to work for them for the summer. I accepted the offer, and headed for Indy once summer rolled around.
Going into the job, I knew little about what I would actually be doing. This made me a little tense, since it’s obvious that IPL deals mainly with electrical things. As it turned out, though, my boss was once a professional civil engineer himself. This made me feel a little better, and also made things a little more interesting down the road. What I ended up doing for IPL dealt mainly with floor plans, AutoCad, and Excel. I started the summer off working with another intern from Rowland Design (an architecture firm in downtown Indianapolis) to take dimension measurements of the different buildings IPL owns to put them into AutoCad drawings. The Rowland intern then did most of the drawings. I took the finished drawings and calculated the areas of each room and came up with a numbering system for the rooms, which they didn’t have before. The room areas were needed for a couple of reasons. First of all, they wanted to have an idea of how much carpet, tile, concrete, and other floor coverings they had, for house-keeping purposes. The second reason is so they knew how much to charge for rent per room. After I had these areas, I organized the data in Excel spreadsheets.
Probably, the one thing most related to civil engineering was the floor plans. My boss, being a PE himself, knew a lot about the various aspects of the buildings, and explained some of the stuff to me. One thing that was interesting not associated with my job was seeing the progress on the new arena for the Pacers. Although I never went inside the structure, my boss and I talked about it after work sometimes, which proved to be quite interesting.
By Pat Seib
I spent the first part of the summer in bed recuperating after surgery. I went under the knife after severely distorting my left knee, ripping the meniscus and tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). After four weeks had passed, the cartilage was stable enough to begin rehabilitation and physical therapy, which lasted for the duration of my free summer. I was unable to attain a doctor’s release to work construction, and am still unable to perform heavy labor or participate in contact sports (exempli gratia Intramural football, basketball) until I am examined by the doctor in December. I bear a scar of approximately three vertical inches on my knee and retain a sizeable portion of numb flesh directly down and to the left of my knee. It was a memorable summer, one which I will never forget.
Construction has its Privileges
By Ryan Hoerst
For most students here at Rose-Hulman, summer is a time to rest, relax and replenish, with the replenish referring to one’s bank account. My situation not being any different from the average student, I was forced to find some means of economic support for the upcoming school year. Since I’ve never been the type to sit behind a counter and flip burgers all day, I decided to get a job involving outdoor physical work. At the same time, I thought it would be in my best interest to also relate my summer job to my chosen field of study, Civil Engineering. The job I finally decided on was with a local construction firm doing various Civil-type duties.
For the most part, my job involved construction of government jobs such as working on government buildings, schools, and other things of that nature. We also had a variety of residential jobs for individual clients which ranged from putting in a simple sidewalk to putting in an in-ground swimming pool. In all of these projects several different aspects of Civil Engineering were involved. Starting off with the initial bidding of the job, to the plan reading, to the actual construction of the job, and finally to the cleaning up of the site. This job was a perfect look at the Civil Engineering profession from the ground up. I was also involved with some bigger projects where I got to see how project management came into play with the profession.
Overall, my summer job was a very demanding one, often working nine to ten hours a day in the summer heat. However, I feel the experience it gave me in the field was very valuable and could help down the road in searching for a job after graduation.
By Scott K. Stranko
I am a mechanical engineering major at Rose-Hulman. Over the summer I worked in manufacturing engineering for a company called New Venture Gear. New Venture Gear is headquartered in Troy Michigan with production facilities in Syracuse, NY and Muncie, IN. The company supplies various major auto manufacturers with 5-speed manual transmissions and transfer cases.
As a summer intern at the Muncie Transmission Division, I assisted two plant engineers on various projects. For many of the projects I was responsible for presenting reports to management for funding appropriation. I was also responsible for keeping in contact with certain consultants and contractors working in the plant. I also worked with the purchasing department in Troy, MI for the purposes of requesting and evaluating proposals for the projects.
Although many mechanical engineers go on to become design engineers, many are plant engineers responsible for production support. From my experience this summer, I have become more aware of what is involved in manufacturing engineering. The manufacturing and plant engineers at NVG play an important role in assuring specifications determined by design engineers are carried through to the final product. Manufacturing engineers set up the tooling and processes by which the parts are manufactured, heat-treated, etc. The manufacturing engineers are also responsible for working with management and outside suppliers to make capital and tooling investments that help insure the plant will remain as profitable as possible.
Although my role as an intern was primarily to support the existing plant engineers, I learned a lot about manufacturing engineering and working in industry by simply being in the plant environment. Although I may choose not to work in manufacturing engineering upon graduation, this summer internship has provided me with some insight into one way mechanical engineers are involved in industry.
By Scott Tomlinson
This summer I worked for a small pottery plant in my hometown taking an inventory of every electric motor used in their plant. This amounted to over 1500 motors in five weeks. When I showed up for my first day, the human resource director took me to the maintenance shop and said, "Let’s see, you’ll need the clipboard, a rag, and a flashlight. Have fun! Oh, by the way, the extension ladders are over there." From that start I was expected to walk the plant starting at one end traveling to the other finding every single electric motor in the plant, be it the smallest fan to the room size compressors. I scoured every single square foot of the plant learning everything about the process and how the building was designed around the processes. I had to know where the raw materials entered and the motors that raised those materials to the storage tanks and the mixing motors that kept them in usable condition. I had to know how those mixed materials moved to the casting rooms and where they were located and the access needed between those areas. I know the way those materials are pumped between the departments. The glaze is the upper story for easy gravity feed delivery to the lower level where it is needed. I learned about the orientation of the kilns and why they were laid out with products moving from department to department. The way the drying racks were laid out was incredible because of the need for massive airflow and extremely low humidity and high heat. The way they are laid out in relation to casting and the ease of access. It is amazing the way the plant is built to flow around the process and work with the process to aid in production. Everything to the sewer system and its pumps to the heating and ventilation system and its blowers, to the conveyer line running throughout the plant.
What I learned over the summer is that I want to know how the systems housed in the building interacts with the structural elements. How the mechanical systems in the building works with the layout and design of the building itself. I would like to be able to design and lay out building elements based on their function within the building.
The Illinois Department of Transportation
By Steve Krause
Last summer, I worked as an intern with the Illinois Department of Transportation. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. The main project I was involved with was upgrading a section of a four lane highway in central Illinois. This involved rebuilding several bridges and paving the road. My job, as an Engineering Technician, was to make sure the projects were being done to state specifications. I would test the air content of concrete before they would place it. I would also make sure asphalt being laid was the right temperature and the right depth. I did a lot of leveling circuits this summer to check drainage of ditches and asphalt levels. I also had to fill out a lot of reports and paper work. One thing I realized this summer is how hard the road construction crews work and how dangerous the environment they work in is. My supervisor, a '93 Rose graduate, was a great guy who taught me a lot of the job.
This job is somewhat related to my chosen career. It involved a lot of project management, and site work. However, I would like to be more involved with heavy construction and large projects. My supervisor told me work was very slow this summer because we were between the scheduling of major projects. Next summer will be a lot busier because of the scheduling of several big budget projects. I had a great experience this summer, but I would like to be more involved with the design aspect of projects.
By Tarelle Van Dyk
This summer I had the opportunity to intern with a nation wide company in Redmond, Washington, which specializes in hydraulic engineering. I found out about this company, specifically the Redmond location, through Dr. Houghtalen of the Rose-Hulman Civil Engineering Department. I was able to make a connection with a Rose-Hulman Alumni who held a position as a Principle Engineer at the consulting firm in Redmond. After a successful interview I accepted a Summer Internship at ENSR Consulting Engineering.
When I arrived for my first day of work on June 1, 1998, I was given an office and personal computer and was assigned to a specific project. As projects were completed I was reassigned to a new one. Adjacent to the office building was a 3 story laboratory, which contained calibration instrumentation and scale model sump studies and dams. These scale models ranged in size. Some with a scale as large as 1:100 others 1:6. Some of these model's held enough water to be bigger than the average swimming pool. Initially, I did a lot of work building the models and becoming oriented with the whole process. The models are built exactly as the prototypes exist, and the job of the firm is to create modifications that improve the performance of the pump or dam. Soon, I was creating the modifications and was even given the opportunity to present the modifications to the client.
I was very happy with my experience at ENSR this summer. It helped me establish a focus for my career. I now want to specialize in hydraulic engineering and perhaps even obtain my doctorate.
By Tara Baranowski
Over the past summer I worked in the hot deli of my local grocery store. I know this job had no relation to my chosen career at all, but it did help me learn a few things. I feel every job is a learning experience and that was exactly what my summer job was.
I think one of the main things I learned while working at the hot deli was communication. I was able to communicate with both customers and fellow employees. I believe communication is an important skill to have in my chosen career of civil engineering. It is important to be able to communicate with your fellow workers and employer. Without communication, nothing would ever be completed correctly or to the best of everyone's ability. Communication enables every employee to coordinate each other's work together.
Another important skill is customer service. It is important to understand what a customer or employer wants and then be able to produce those results. If someone misinterprets the direction, then the end results are not what were expected by the customer. This causes a loss for the company because they must be willing to redo the job or reimburse the money. Either way the company loses money because of loss of time and materials due to miscommunication.
Something else I learned was patience and understanding. Patience is a key skill when dealing with customers. Some are having bad days and do not really care how they treat you while others are just in too big of hurry to care one way or the other. Taking the time to be sympathetic to a customer's needs is necessary for good customer service.
I also learned a little bit of leadership skills while working at the hot deli over the summer. Leadership skills are essential in any situation. If no one is present to give directions then nobody would ever get anything accomplished. Thus, if nothing is finished, then the company is wasting more time and energy.
Though my summer job had no relationship whatsoever with my chosen career, I still feel it was a learning experience for me. I was able to learn certain skills that are somewhat hard to acquire in other positions.
By Tim Hayes
This summer I worked for a total estate management company. They are a very prestigious company in my hometown of Fort Wayne IN. I did everything from cutting lawns and landscaping to washing windows and cleaning pools. The wide range of tasks and tremendous responsibility involved with this job will help me in my decision to become a Civil Engineer.
The first way estate management helps is time management. My workdays start at 7:00am and we usually return to the shop between 6:00pm and 7:00pm. In-between these times there are four to six houses to take care of and each house is chock-full of duties to accomplish. The schedule is very tight and if we get behind we re-evaluate our list and act according to importance.
The second way this job relates to my soon to be career is responsibility. I finished my fourth summer with this company and I am looked upon as a veteran who helps the new summer help and keeps them in line. The owners listen to my ideas on how to improve client’s houses and give me tasks usually only given to full time employees. This responsibility has helped me grow up and get me ready for the real world.
The final way this summer job has helped me is the environment and the type of work I do. I am outside all day long working through different weather conditions and adapting the work schedule. I also need to do some design work when landscaping. The factors to consider when landscaping include: what type of plant material does this soil accept, how much water does this area get, is erosion a problem, and how do we account for these problems.
In conclusion, the most important way my summer job relates to my chosen career as a Civil Engineer is dealing with people. I’ve learned to listen to what the client wants and how to do what they want. This is most important because if you don’t keep the client happy, then who are you going to sell your services to.
National Steel Bridge Alliance Symposium
By: Sean Stoughton
On the first day of class this quarter, Dr. Descoteaux and four students were invited to the National Steel Bridge Alliance Symposium in Chicago, IL. The four students that went on the trip were seniors Chad Leinart, Ben Merkling, and Sean Stoughton, and sophomore Matthew York. The Rose ASCE Chapter was invited to the symposium because of the chapter’s success in recent steel bridge regional and national competitions. The group took their two most recent bridges to display at the symposium and answer questions about the bridges and competitions. Bridge designers from around the world were in attendance at the symposium, with the Rose group being the only student group there. The trip allowed the students to meet professionals in the industry and discuss real life bridge design and construction. The professionals attending the symposium were very impressed with the bridges and the Rose group in general. The student group and the National Steel Bridge Alliance, which is considering inviting Rose-Hulman ASCE to be involved in more of their events, considered the trip successful.
The New and Improved Community Theater
By Jon Walls
On September 9th, about 15 members of the Cecil T. Lobo Student Chapter of ASCE went on a field trip to the Terre Haute Community Theater. The project consisted mainly of improving what was already there and increasing the size of the theater. The project was being run by Ted Hazledine of The Benchmark Group. He gave us a tour of the facility and showed us some of the problems he has encountered on this job. His proudest moment of the whole job was the trusses that were fabricated to match the Shook Fieldhouse style roof over the theater. The theater itself was basically being modernized to better suit the community that see the plays performed there. The major emphasis was put on extra storage room for costumes and equipment when it is needed to be put away. This extra storage was put in the upper level of the building, which had a very low overhead clearance. There was a lot of thought put in to maximizing the space in the upper level since it was all for storage. Also, a lot of work was put into making the entry way and the outside of the building look better. This was a great project, not only to help the people who use this facility, but also to improve the community that supports this theater. Over the past couple of weeks since this field trip, the amount of work put into this theater has been tremendous. The progress they have made is amazing and the building looks great. ASCE appreciates the time Ted Hazledine puts in to help not only us as a group of students, but also the community. We would like to thank him for his time and patience with us and would like to tell him what a great job he did with the Terre Haute Community Theater.
Wednesday, November 11, 1998
Speaker - Kerry Phillips from WEI will be here at 12:40PM
Fieldtrip to ISU to see construction of their Utility Tunnels
Wednesdat, December 2, 1998
Speaker - Rick Koehler from Simco Engineering
Saturday, December 5, 1998
Habitat fot Humanity Workday
Tuesday, December 8, 1998
Winter Banquet for ASCE
- Speaker will be talking about the West Baden Springs Hotel
Wednesday, December 9, 1998
CE Colloquium