May, 2019 Luncheon

Speaker: Brent Niemann, Strata Solar

Date: Thursday, May 16, 2019

Topic:  Utility Scale Photovoltaic Solar Farm Development & Construction

Presentation: Not Available

Summary: Please join Strata Solar Civil Engineer Brent Niemann for a discussion about utility scale solar farm planning, entitlement, design and construction.

Speaker: Brent has been working on utility scale solar farm design and construction with Strata Solar since 2012, with a focus on entitlement and permitting. Prior to joining Strata, he spent 16 years as a consulting engineer and developer in single and multi-family residential and commercial projects throughout the state of North Carolina. He is a native of the Triangle area, from nearby Zebulon, and is a current resident of Wake Forest with his wife Holly and their two children. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and Professional Engineering licenses in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

April, 2019 Dinner

Speaker: Elaina J. Sutley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Kansas

Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Topic:  An Overview of the Longitudinal Community Resilience Study of Lumberton, NC following 2016 Hurricane Matthew

Presentation: PDF

Summary: In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused catastrophic flooding to Lumberton, North Carolina, an inland city in Robeson County with approximately 21,000 people. Impacts from the flooding included all 42 schools in the county, serving 24,000 children, closing for three weeks, and more than 5,000 people placed in shelters or temporary housing by FEMA. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-funded Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning initiated a longitudinal community resilience study of Lumberton. The first field study was performed approximately one month after Hurricane Matthew, and collected data on damage to residential structures, and household dislocation. The second field study was performed approximately one year later to collect data on recovery progress for the same housing samples, and a new sample of businesses. The city was severely impacted again by 2018 Hurricane Florence, after which the Center returned for a third time to document damage to the housing and business samples. At the time of this ASCE meeting, the fourth field study will be on-going. This presentation will provide an overview of the project, the longitudinal study, and recent findings on Lumberton's progress towards recovery after successive flood events.

Speaker: Dr. Sutley is an assistant professor in structural engineering at the University of Kansas. Dr. Sutley's research is at the nexus of structural engineering, social science, and public policy, with an emphasis on woodframe buildings and housing. She incorporates holistic metrics of sustainability and resilience into her research, and focuses on developing interdisciplinary science, particularly with respect to hazards and disaster research. Dr. Sutley has extensive background in seismic design and retrofit, full-scale experimental testing, and numerical modeling of light frame wood buildings. Dr. Sutley is part of the NIST-funded Center of Excellence for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning. Dr. Sutley currently serves as the chair of the Structural Engineering Institute's (SEI) technical activities committee on the Design of Wood Structures, and as chair of the National Science Foundation's Natural Hazard Experimental Research Infrastructure (NHERI) User Forum committee.

March, 2019 Tour

Speaker: Shamar Drake with Skanska

Date: Thursday, March 21, 2019

Topic:  Onsite Tour of the Pratt School of Engineering Building

Presentation: None

Location:  Duke University

Summary: Opening in November 2020, Duke University's newest academic building will provide 150,000 square feet of collaborative, interdisciplinary space for learning and discovery. Housing new education, research, and entrepreneurship initiatives of the Pratt School of Engineering, the building will bring together departments, faculty, and students from across the university to improve human health, advance computing and intelligent systems, and pave the way toward a more sustainable future.

February, 2019 Luncheon

Speaker: Caroline Lindquist, Planning Specialist with the City of Raleigh

Date: Thursday, February 21, 2019

Topic:  Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan Update

Presentation: PDF

Summary: We’ll learn about the revisions to the Dorthea Dix Park project.

Speaker: Caroline Lindquist is a Planning Specialist for the Dorothea Dix Park Project at the City of Raleigh. Previously, Caroline worked for the solar energy company Cypress Creek Renewables. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a major in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Energy and Sustainability and a minor in City and Regional Planning. Her studies focused on green infrastructure, the mental health benefits of green space in cities, and biophilic design. Caroline is also a graduate of the DISC* Program at UC Berkeley which focused on Design and Innovation in Sustainable Cities. She has studied renewable energy policy and sustainable community design in Spain and Germany through the UNC Burch Fellowship Research Group.

January, 2019 Tour

Speaker: Joe Puckett, PE, with Stewart Engineering

Date: Thursday, January 17, 2019

Topic:  On Site Tour of the The Dillion Project in downtown Raleigh

Presentation: N.A.

Summary: With construction completed in 2018, the Dillon serves as the focal point of the revitalization of the warehouse district in downtown Raleigh. The presentation will center around Stewart’s design perspectives, challenges faced during design and construction, and experiences working on the project.

Speaker: Joe Puckett is the studio leader for the landscape architecture and civil engineer practice areas at Stewart.

November 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Tom Caldwell, PE, with MBP

Date: Thursday, November 15, 2018

Topic:  NCEER - A New Service Organization

Presentation: PDF

Summary: NCEER is a new State-sponsored team of 15 North Carolina engineers who are trained and qualified to serve at disaster sites as North Carolina first responders. This concept is an outgrowth of the FEMA Structures Specialist (StS) role on Urban Search and Rescue teams.

The NCEER engineers are on-call with the North Carolina Emergency Management Division. They can be called up and assigned to NC Search and Rescue teams, local fire departments, or any other public agency that is facing an infrastructure disaster.

Speaker: Tom Caldwell is a Civil and Structural engineer. He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1984 and earned his Masters at NC State. He is Chief Engineer at Atlas Engineering in Raleigh, where his primary work is in assessing damaged structures, and designing structural repairs.

Tom has served as an emergency response engineer with FEMA since 1997, and was recently selected to serve on the FEMA IST. Mr. Caldwell has been serving North Carolina agencies at emergency sites since 2005, and he is currently a member of NCEER and NC USAR Team TF8.

October, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Stacie Phillips, PE and Betty White, PE, with Kimley-Horn

Date: Thursday, October 18, 2018

Topic:  Transit Technologies in the Triangle

Presentation: PDF

Summary: Wake, Orange, and Durham Counties have all passed sales tax referendums for transit improvements. These funds are now being put into action through the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and Transit Signal Priority (TSP) projects in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Betty and Stacie will provide background information on these technologies and discuss details of current and upcoming projects in Chapel Hill and Raleigh.

Stacie Phillips, PE - Stacie is a Senior Project Manager at Kimley-Horn with 14 years of experience in transportation design, operations, and safety. She is the president of NCSITE and a member of the Transportation Research Board Signal Systems Committee and chairs the multimodal subcommittee.

Betty White, PE - Betty is a Transit Practice Builder at Kimley-Horn with 11 years of experience in light rail, streetcar, and BRT design throughout the United States. She is currently leading the Raleigh Downtown Transportation BRT Study and Kimley-Horn's efforts in the Chapel Hill BRT project.

September, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Dr. Morton Barlaz, Dean of Civil Engineering, NCSU
NC State's Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

Date: Thursday, September 20, 2018

Topic:  2018 Update on our Teaching and Research Programs

Presentation: PDF

Summary: Dr. Barlaz has been the head of NC State's Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering department since 2010 and has been on the faculty since 1989.  He presented an update on the department's faculty, its three undergraduate degree programs, and current research. He also spoke about the department's move to Fitts-Woolard Hall on Centennial Campus in 2020.

August, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Mark Landis at Schnabel Engineering and Kevin Lugo at MBP

Date: Thursday, August 16, 2018

Topic:  Restoration of Hope Mills Dam

Presentation: PDF

Summary: The original Hope Mills Dam, located in southeastern North Carolina, was constructed in the late 1830s to provide power to four nearby cotton mills. The dam was breached and rebuilt between 1923 and 1924. The second dam overtopped in 2003. A third dam was constructed five years later, but in 2010, it failed as well. The design-build team, which was selected in 2014, elected to remove the remains of the 2008 structure and build a new dam and labyrinth spillway. Mr. Landis and Mr. Lugo will talk about some of the challenges encountered during the construction to include water management of a 100-year flood and, 10 days later, a 500-year flood at the site.

Mark Landis, PG, PE – Mark is the Lead Engineer in the Greensboro Office of Schnabel Engineering.  He has an undergraduate degree in Geology and a Master of Civil Engineering. Mark has over 35 years of experience in geology, geophysics, and geotechnical engineering.  Mr. Landis is currently the PM on Asheville’s primary water supply dam upgrades and a new 1100-acre offline storage reservoir in Virginia. Mark was the Engineer-of-Record for the Hope Mills dam reconstruction.
 
Kevin Lugo, PE, CCM – Kevin is a Vice President in the Raleigh Office of MBP. He has an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. Mr. Lugo has over 25 years of varied engineering and management experience in heavy construction (power, highways, bridges, subways, water treatment, and utilities) and buildings (higher education, K-12 schools, hotels, plants, offices, housing, and military facilities).

June, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Tommy Rose, Metalplate Galvanizing, Southeast Regional Sales Manager

Date: Thursday, June 21, 2018

Topic: Galvanizing 101

Presentation: N.A.

Summary: This presentation covers everything from the galvanizing chemistry and longevity expectations to QC and defect identification.  This will be a good opportunity to better understand steel construction from a fabricator's perspective.

Mr. Rose has been in the galvanizing business for 18 years: two years as a Plant Foreman and 16 years in sales.  He has hosted over 70 galvanizing seminars in the last 16 years for over 1,600 architects, engineers, steel fabricators, and end users. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Galvanizers Association from 2008-2016, served as President from 2012-2014, and is currently the Market Development Chairman. Since 2012, he has served on the Board of Directors for the Association for Metallically Stabilized Earth and for the past year he has served on the T-8 Sub Committee on Galvanizing for AASHTO (Bridge Committee).

May, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Commander (Ret) Joe Angell, PE, F.SAME

Date: Thursday, May 17, 2018

Topic: Civil Engineering in the Federal Work Space

Presentation: PDF

Summary: The program will discuss the types of relationships civil engineers typically find themselves in and how projects are purchased by the various federal agencies, how civil engineers support the design and design-build teams, and how professional licensing is different than most other disciplines.

Mr. Angell served 20 years as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer and retired from active duty in 2003. Since retirement, he worked in the consulting industry specializing in winning and performing design and design-build services on contracts with the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Veterans Affairs, Department of Labor, and the Department of Homeland Security.  He graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and Pennsylvania State University with a Master’s degree in Construction Management.  He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the states of North Carolina and Connecticut.  He is currently a Senior Project Manager with Apogee Consulting Group in Cary, North Carolina and specializes in execution of design and design-build services with numerous federal and local agencies.

Location:  This luncheon will be held at the beautiful NC State University Club at 4200 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27606.  You can contact the NC University Club at (919) 828-0308 if you need assistance locating their establishment.

Costs:
$25 for ASCE Members
$30 for Non-ASCE Members
$10 for ASCE Life Members, Students, and Unemployed ASCE Members.

If you are paying at the door, please bring cash or a check made out to "ASCE NC Eastern Branch".

RSVP:  Our online system handles all registrations and payments.  You can register and pay for the event online using your credit card. Even if you don't want to pay online, please use the online system to register. There are no additional fees, accounts, or passwords to remember. The online system will also allow you to specify your meal preference (Omnivorian or Vegetarian). Upon arrival at the event, just check-in at the registration table using your name.

We understand your schedule may change and you might not be able to make it to the event. Cancellations with refunds can be honored up until 12:00pm (noon) two days prior to the event. If you are neither able to attend nor cancel in time, you may send a replacement.

To help Professional Engineers in attendance acquire 15 Professional Development Hour (PDH) units per license renewal period in accordance with 21 NCAC 56.1703, we offer one PDH certificate after the presentation.

April, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Greg Eades, Facility Operations Branch Chief at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Date: Thursday, April 19, 2018

Topic: Beneficial Use of Air Handling Unit Condensate for Laboratory HVAC Energy and Water Recovery in Hot and Humid Climates

Presentation: N.A.

Summary:  Despite considerable research into water conservation by reusing air handling unit (AHU) condensate in hot and humid climates, relatively few studies explore the potential for energy conservation by capturing and using waste energy. This presentation describes the methodology used to analyze and predict AHU condensate’s energy and water recovery potential by presenting a case study for a 100% outside air laboratory building located in Raleigh,  North Carolina. Results indicate up to 10% energy and 31% water savings utilizing this approach.

Mr. Eades currently serves as the Facility Operations Branch Chief for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Campus. He has also held a variety of engineering positions for the State of North Carolina, the private sector, and the United States Air Force. His bachelors and masters degrees in Civil Engineering are from North Carolina State University. Mr. Eades is a North Carolina registered Professional Engineer and a Certified Energy Manager.

March, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: Henry Petroski, Professor at Duke University

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018

Topic: Infrastructure in Perspective

Presentation: N.A.

Summary: Mr. Petroski discussed the background, status, and future of selected aspects of our infrastructure and the funding for such things in the context of technology, finance, and politics.  Despite the seemingly endless discussions about and the maturity of our aging infrastructure, there remain numerous research and practical challenges for all involved to meet in bringing the old up to twenty-first century standards and in supplementing it with visionary new systems and subsystems, including self-healing pavements, smart bridges, and autonomous vehicles.

February, 2018 Luncheon

Speaker: James A. Rispoli, P.E., Senior Executive Advisor at PT&C

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2018

Topic: Engineering Ethics - Case Studies

Presentation: PDF

Summary: Jim will discuss several situations involving ethics that could be typical of the types of things professional engineers must deal with in their engineering positions.  Each situation could have resulted in significant risk to workers on the site, and/or the public, had not the facts been found and the situation resolved.  Each of the situations Jim will discuss involved activity in engineering and construction projects, or facilities operations; two were personally known to him, and his examples have significant coverage of the events found in on-line sources.

James Rispoli is a licensed professional engineer in five states, an American Academy of Environmental Engineers' Board Certified Environmental Engineer, and a member of the National Academy of Construction, and a Professor of Practice at the North Carolina State University. Additionally, he serves as a senior executive advisor for PT&C, LLC, an ENR-ranked engineering firm with over 25 years' experience serving owners in both operations and construction roles. Mr. Rispoli served as an Assistant Secretary of Energy from 2005 through 2008, nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate.

November, 2017 Luncheon

Speaker: David Evans @ NCBELS

Date: Thursday, November 16, 2017

Topic: NCBELS - Rules of Professional Conduct

Presentation: N.A.

Summary: The program will provide attendees a Board update covering licensing trends; enforcement matters, including non-licensed practice; Engineering Committee activities; engineering exams; and CPC compliance.  Attendees will be engaged to test their knowledge and application of the Rules of Professional Conduct given various scenarios faced by Professional Engineers.  This will be followed by a discussion of common factors in violation cases as well ethical considerations in professional practice.

David joined the staff of the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors in 1998. As the Board's Assistant Executive Director, he supervises investigations of engineers, surveyors, corporations, and non-licensed practices.  David also oversees business licensure and compliance, continuing professional competency, license renewals, and the Board's regular program of enforcement and education.  David previously conducted criminal investigations in the U.S. Army as a Military Police Investigator.  He is a past Chairman of the Committee on Law Enforcement for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.  David has a B.A. in History and Social Science from Eastern Connecticut State University.

October, 2017 Luncheon

Event cancelled.  No presentation.

September, 2017 Luncheon

Speaker: Morven MacLean, WSP

Date: Thursday, September 21, 2017

Topic: GoRaleigh Station Renovation

Presentation: PDF

Image via Morven MacLean

Summary: The GoRaleigh Station renovation project celebrated completion with a ribbon cutting event on May 23, 2017.  The Moore Square Transit Station had been in operation since 1988 with constrained bus operating capabilities due to an unfortunately dated facility.  The renovation has transformed the transit facility in downtown Raleigh with functional improvements and the creation of a modern, inviting, and attractive public space.   WSP USA Inc. served as the prime designer and performed construction administration for the City of Raleigh.  This presentation will address the design team’s approach, discuss the project’s challenges, and provide an overview of construction and the new operating capabilities of the renovated transit station.

Morven MacLean, LLB is a project manager with the Transit and Rail Technical Center of WSP.  Her experience lies with the planning and delivery of large capital rail and transit projects.  Morven is a native of Scotland with a degree in undergraduate Scottish Law.

August, 2017 Luncheon

Speaker: Brian Ceccarelli, Talus Software

Date: Thursday, August 17, 2017

Topic: The Yellow Change Interval – Physics in Opposition

Presentation: PDF
Red Light Camera #1:  AVI | M4V
Red Light Camera #2:  AVI | M4V
Red Light Camera #3:  AVI | M4V
Left Turn Animation #1: AVI | M4V
Left Turn Animation #2: AVI | M4V
Right Turn Animation: AVI | M4V

Summary: This presentation starts with William Potts, the Detroit police officer who invented the yellow traffic signal light in 1920, then moves on to Alexei Maradudin, the University of California physicist who invented the equation traffic engineers use today to set the duration of the yellow light.  Engineers have been using his equation since 1965, applying it universally to all types of traffic motion approaching an intersection.  But Maradudin’s equation accommodates the kinetics of only one case of traffic movement.   The equation conflicts with the kinetics of the rest.  By traffic engineers applying his equation universally, the engineers induce a systematic failure into every traffic signal, a failure causing reasonably-perceptive drivers to unwillingly run red lights.  The driver experiences this failure by either stepping on the gas, by slamming on the brakes or by consigning himself to run a red light, the latter option occurring frequently when decelerating for turning and avoidance maneuvers.  The failure does cause crashes.  The presentation concludes with a word about the compatibility between engineering, physics and man-made laws.

Brian Ceccarelli is a licensed professional engineer (software engineering) in the State of North Carolina.  Mr. Ceccarelli current owns his own company and works on various software projects.  Mr. Ceccarelli has designed and built applications for NASA’s Mars Observer spacecraft, applications for calculating stresses in copper mines in the Congo and Chile, and CAD/CAM applications for the US defense industry.  Ceccarelli took an interest in transportation engineering when the Town of Cary, North Carolina bestowed upon him a red light camera ticket.  Mr. Ceccarelli since has been published in Traffic Technology International, has been an expert panelist in traffic signal timing for the Institute of Transportation Engineers 2015 International Convention, and a speaker at the International Autonomous Vehicles Symposium in Stuttgart, Germany.  Mr. Ceccarelli has a B.Sc. in physics and is a member of ASCE, ITE, and IEEE.

June, 2017 Luncheon

Speaker: Kate Pearce, AICP, Senior Planner, City of Raleigh, Project Manager Dorothea Dix Park

Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017

Topic: Dix Park:  The Creation of America’s Next Great Public Space

Presentation: PDF

Summary:  The City of Raleigh’s acquisition of the Dorothea Dix Campus presents an unprecedented opportunity to create America’s next great public park. Kate Pearce, Senior Planner, with the City of Raleigh will share the story of the evolution of the property and provide a window into the upcoming planning process.

About the presenter:  Kate Pearce is the Senior Planner for Dorothea Dix Park for the City of Raleigh.  As the project manager, she is responsible for the stewardship, use, and future planning of the park.  Prior to joining the City, she worked as both an urban planning and business management consultant.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a MBA from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and a Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She also has completed certificate courses at the London School of Economics, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and the Central American Institute for International Affairs.

May, 2017 Luncheon

Speaker: Todd King, PLS, LEED AP, Business Development @ McKim & Creed

Date: Thursday, May 18, 2017

Topic: Proof of Concept Tests of Unmanned Aerial Surveys for Coastal Surveys

Presentation: PDF

Summary:  Nearly 130 million people live in communities that depend on accurate beach monitoring surveys to analyze storm damage, plan and predict maintenance and renourishment activities, and secure emergency funding for restoration. McKim & Creed and ESRI co-hosted a proof of concept (POC) along ~100 acres of North Carolina coast to study the feasibility of using low-cost, commercial, unmanned aerial systems (UAS)— drones—to collect accurate data for beach monitoring surveys without disturbing bird nesting habitats. This presentation will summarize the findings of this award-winning POC that compared the accuracy, efficiency, cost effectiveness, and environmental impact of terrestrial LiDAR, aerial LiDAR, conventional surveying, and UAS.

About the presenter: Todd King, PLS, is a licensed surveyor and a certified remote pilot airman under FAA Part 107. He has worked with McKim & Creed as a land surveyor, a civil technician, and, currently, as a business developer. Todd has owned and sold two successful start-up companies, and is a graduate of Appalachian State University with a degree in applied mathematics.