ASCE Plot Points Podcast

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.

The nation turns its attention to Capitol Hill this week, as the House of Representatives reconvenes for what may be one of the busiest weeks of legislative work in recent memory. Meanwhile, the focus of Capitol Hill’s attention turns to infrastructure with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is slated for a vote this Thursday.

Regardless of the result this week, it’s a huge step forward for ASCE and its decades of advocacy for infrastructure investment.

Rebecca Shelton is one of the real champions of that advocacy work, as a co-chair of the Georgia Infrastructure Report Card and is a member of the ASCE Committee for America’s Infrastructure.

On episode 87 of ASCE Plot Points, Shelton talks about her work and what a potential infrastructure bill would mean for civil engineers.

Paul Mlaker is an ASCE Distinguished Member with more than 40 years of service with the United State Army Corps of Engineers, now in the role of Engineer Emeritus for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

And 20 years ago, he led the ASCE team investigating the damage done by the Sept. 11 attack at the Pentagon.

In episode 85 of ASCE Plot Points, Mlakar looks back on that investigation, Sept. 11, and how the profession has changed.

This episode of ASCE Plot Points is supported by Maplesoft. Visit maplesoft.com/mapleflow.

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It's difficult to believe that it’s been 20 years since the tragic attacks of Sept. 11. For the people who lost loved ones, it’s a story of unimaginable grief. For the country, and our collective conscience, it’s a story of fundamental change. And of course, amid all the hurt and hope and resilience and loss, it’s a civil engineering story too.