Apply to Attend the 2019 Legislative Fly-In: Deadline November 19

Now is the time to apply to attend the 2019 Legislative Fly-In on March 12 and 13, 2019! The deadline to submit your application is November 19, 2018. You must be an ASCE member in-good-standing and a Key Contact to apply. You must fully complete the online application to be considered.

Join 200+ fellow Key Contacts in Washington, DC for two days of legislative training and meetings on Capitol Hill. The 2019 Fly-In program includes: 

• Meetings on Capitol Hill with your Members of Congress or their staff

• Briefing sessions on key legislation active in Congress.

• Training on lobbying and influencing elected leaders

• Networking with ASCE peers from across the country

• Tips on maintaining relationships with your elected officials once you return home

• A Younger Member Program

• Presentation of the 2019 Outstanding Civil Engineer Advocate of the Year Awards.

The best participants are members active in the Key Contact Program or those interested in advocating on behalf of ASCE and our Priority Issues. We ask that Fly-In attendees be willing to continue to foster relationships with legislators and their staff when they return home. If you have any questions about the Fly-In program, please reach out to ASCE’s Government Relations Team at govwash@asce.org. 

Future City starts with a question: How can we make the world a better place? To answer it, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. Past topics include stormwater management, urban agriculture, public spaces, and green energy.

The 2018-2019 theme is Powering Our Future! Teams will design a resilient power grid for their future city that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster.

Participants will complete five deliverables:

1. a virtual city design (using SimCity)

2. a 1,500-word city essay

3. a scale model built from recycled materials

4. a project plan

5. a presentation to judges at Regional Competitions in January, 2019

Regional winners represent their region at the Finals in Washington, DC in February, 2019. After completing Future City, student participants are not only prepared to be citizens of today's complex and technical world, but also poised to become the drivers of tomorrow.

There are mentor positions available throughout North Carolina. We are proud to say that ASCE has supported the North Carolina region with volunteers since it began in 2003. We hope you will continue this tradition this year. The Call for Mentors pamphlet details the competition and mentor responsibilities.

The areas needing mentors as of 2018-10-25 are as follows:

• Rocky Mount – 2 Schools and 6 Mentors needed.

• Durham – 2 Schools and 2 Mentors needed.

• Charlotte – 2 Schools and 4 Mentors needed.

• Henderson – 1 School and 3 Mentors needed.

• Winfall – 1 School and 3 Mentors needed.

• Morganton – 1 School and 2 Mentors needed.

• Lumberton – 1 School (1 Mentor Assigned wanting one more)

• Greensboro – 2 Schools and 2 Mentors needed.

• High Point – 2 Schools and 2 Mentors needed.

• New Bern – 1 School and 1 Mentor needed.

• Wilmington – 1 School and 3 Mentors needed.

The North Carolina Section's Awards Committee is seeking nominations for the following awards:

2018 Project of the Year
2018 Engineer of the Year
2018 Young Engineer of the Year
2018 Student Chapter Member of the Year

The Awards Committee requests that North Carolina Section Members of ASCE please submit recommendations for each award. In making recommendations, please submit appropriate biographical and/or documented data as requested in the award statements. There are no special forms. A resume, letter of recommendation, and any other pertinent information will be acceptable.

Please review the enclosed information and submit recommendations. It is preferred that recommendation packages are submitted as a Microsoft Word document (.doc) or PDF, and submitted electronically. It is requested that each ASCE Section member submit to the Awards Chair in one e-mail message.

The deadline for recipients of recommendations is by COB Monday, August 20th, 2018. If you have any questions about the awards process, please contact us at ncasce.awards@gmail.com.
 

The Structural Engineers Association (SEA), the AIA, and ASCE are teaming up to create a Design Professional Organization volunteer response program with North Carolina Emergency Management.

The group is looking for an ASCE representative to serve on its Structural Engineers Emergency Response (SEER) Committee.  Time commitment consists of conference calls once per month with a plan to back down to once per 6 to 8 weeks once the group gets better organized.

This year SEER is organizing a day-long training session and is working with the state regarding registering volunteers and obtaining credentials to get them through security checkpoints.

For more information please contact Rob Stevenson at 919-832-5587, ext. 11, or   rstevenson@lhcengineers.com

ASCE representatives are needed to serve on the Structural Engineers Emergency Response (SEER) Committee.

This is a joint venture between ASCE, the Structural Engineers Association (SEA), and the AIA, to create a Design Professional Organization volunteer response program with North Carolina Emergency Management. 

We are organizing a day-long training session and talking with the state about registering our volunteers and obtaining credentials to get us through security checkpoints.  We are doing conference calls once per month and plan to back down to once per 6 to 8 weeks once we get better organized.

If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Rob Stevenson at (919) 832-5587, ext. 11, or rstevenson@lhcengineers.com.

Duke hosted the 2018 The Carolinas Conference during the first weekend of April.  UNC-Charlotte won the Concrete Canoe competition and NCSU won the Steel Bridge competition. Both schools now qualify to attend the respective national competitions. Congratulations to both teams and schools!

Image via NCSU

ASCE National's Geographic Services informed us that Dr. Paul Zia, Ph.D., P.E., Dist. M.ASCE, NAE and Dr. Sami H. Rizkalla, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE from the Eastern Branch of the North Carolina Section have been selected by the Structural Engineering Institute to receive the 2018 T.Y. Lin Award for the paper “Dapped Ends of Prestressed Concrete Thin-stemmed Members: Part 1, Experimental Testing and Behavior,” published in PCI Journal, March-April 2017.

Image via NCSU

We are exceptionally proud of Dr. Zia and Dr. Rizkalla and thank them for their numerous contributions to ASCE and the Civil Engineering profession.

The Region 4 Assembly, which includes all members of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in the states of Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, has established a very meaningful and worthwhile competition and award for a Younger Member who resides within Region 4. A Younger Member is defined as a member, associate member or affiliate not over 35 years of age on February 1, 2018.

The award is named after Daniel V. Terrell of the Kentucky Section. Dean Terrell served as President of National ASCE in 1954. This award is presented annually for the outstanding paper submitted on a topic established by the Region 4 Assembly. Two (2) papers per Section may be entered in the Daniel V. Terrell Paper Competition. If one chooses to enter the Daniel V. Terrell competition, the paper must be submitted to the Terrell Committee by the entrant's Section President (David Harris) by April 1, 2018. The entrant must then present their paper during the Spring 2018 meeting of the Region 4 Assembly to be held in July of 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina (specific date and exact location to be determined).

This year's topic is "How does the personal and professional use of social media relate to the ASCE Code of Ethics?" The first place award is a plaque and $500.  The second place prize is $250.

For complete rules and information on the Terrell Paper Competition, visit the Region 4 website.

For additional information on the Daniel V. Terrell competition, please contact Jon Keeling, Monica Sartain, or David Harris.

Travel arrangements to the meeting should be coordinated with the entrant's respective Branch and/or Section.  Financial assistance may be available.

Download a PDF with the paper's topic and details.