Articles

Field Engineering and Technical Marketing with Hilti

Alexis Clark of Hilti spoke to the Hillcrest High School CE Club about her career arc through field engineering and now in technical marketing. From her experience as a field engineer, she let the students know that not all engineers work from an office and do calculations and design in what most would call a "traditional" setting. She also reminded the students that engineering doesn’t have to be your only passion – you can incorporate a passion of language, art, competition, travel, etc. into your pursuit of a career in engineering!

Alexis walked the students through the history of Hilti and some of her daily tasks as a field engineer and technical marketer. She then gave the students a hands-on exercise to design appropriate anchorage of a column base plate to concrete using different anchor types. The students had to design with all anchor types and make an argument for one of the anchor types based on strength, overall cost, ease of installation and other parameters that professional engineers must take into consideration in their designs every day.

Land Development with Foresite Group

Julia Dang, Patrick Annett and Kyle Depperman of Foresite Group, a loyal partner to the CE Club Program in Dallas, led their now famous land development activity with the Hillcrest High School students. This great group activity illustrates to the high school students how land development teams must work together to achieve an under-budget, efficient, profitable, and welcoming community.  Each student was given a specific role to personify on a development team:

• Developer– interested in getting the most return on investment
• Home Owner’s Association Chair– concerned with the long-term residents of the community and the impact the development will have on property values, quality of life, and comfort
• City Planner– concerned about boosting the city’s economy while also meeting the community needs
• City Economic Developer– interested in the revenue the new development will generate and the jobs that will be created
• Mayor– up for re-election and interested in making the community members as happy as possible; gives the final approval of the layout

Students were given a site plan with four blank city blocks that was bordered by a neighborhood, a major highway, and commercial development.  They were given a budget and a list of possible buildings and spaces that could fill up these four blocks, along with a cost associated with each building or space.  Students then had to assume their roles within the development team to decide where and how many grocery stores, houses, apartment complexes, strips malls, pharmacies, parks, homeless shelters, schools, and community centers would be placed on the site plan.  Students quickly realized the importance of patience and communication when each team member has a different agenda for the development.  Each group then had to present their new development to the whole class while justifying the decisions they had made. The Foresite Group engineers then offered constructive feedback of each team’s development.

Woodrow Wilson High School CE Club Update - December 2018

Julie Jones from Nathan D. Maier spoke to the CE Club students at Woodrow Wilson High School about Engineers Without Borders on November 30, 2018. 

Julie highlighted a EWB project she assisted with in Bolivia.  She mentioned most EWB projects incorporate providing clean drinking water to remote villages around the world.  The group that traveled to Bolivia had the opportunity to practice their Spanish and meet the community and get their feedback.  The group assisted with building a base map using GPS that would identify major roads, limits of the community, schools, and other important landmarks.  The group helped develop a water distribution system that would be built in phases depending on funding. 

We thank Juile for speaking to the Woodrow Wilson High School CE Club.

If you are interested in presenting to the Woodrow Wilson CE Club, email:

Omar Venzor - [email protected]

Jennifer Smith – [email protected]

The classes are on Fridays 9:05-9:55, 10:05-10:55, and 11:05-11:55