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CE Club Update - June 2015

Field Trip with Fugro, ASCE Dallas, DWU, and MWH Global

Ten of the top juniors from the Civil Engineering and Architecture Design classes at Woodrow Wilson HS had the opportunity to go on an exciting and action-packed field trip on Monday, May 11th. The day started off with the students getting a tour from Ardita Dushi, P.E., a speaker at WWHS earlier in the year, of the Fugro Geotechnical and Materials Lab. Students were shown the coring machines used by the engineers and technicians at Fugro as well some of the tests done on a daily basis in the lab. Some of the students were even brave enough to volunteer to execute some of the tests themselves. Watching some of the testing cylinders being loaded to failure in compression was the highlight according to many of the students.

Mr. Carver and his students then made their way over to the Crown Plaza Hotel in Addison where they were special guests for the ASCE Dallas Branch Meeting. A special thanks to the ASCE Dallas Board of Directors and the ASCE Region 6 Governors for sponsoring the students’ meals at this luncheon. Several ASCE Dallas Younger Members hosted the students at two of the tables at the front of hotel ballroom. After a brief lesson on how to use the multitude of glasses, plates, and silverware on the banquet tables, everyone sat down for a great 3-course meal and a presentation from Mark Simon, P.E. of Dallas Water Utilities. The students were also formally recognized during the meeting by the ASCE Dallas Education Co-Chair, Jonathan Brower, so that the ASCE Dallas members could put faces to the program they have been hearing so much about over the past three years.

Next, the students visited Dallas Water Utilities’ Bachman Water Treatment Plant and got an overview of the ongoing upgrades to the treatment plant. Dallas Water Utilities Project Manager Cassia Sanchez led the tour along with the plant operator. Students were shown the plant’s master control room, the ozone generation and destruct units, and the liquid oxygen storage. They also got to walk through the flocculation and sedimentation basins and witness a filter backwash in the Filter Building. Finally, the students were shown the clearwell construction that is currently in progress. This entire tour allowed the students to learn about and follow the water treatment process and see the water quality improve as they travelled through the plant. Thank you to Andre Garces-Torres, the ASCE Dallas Hospitality Co-Chair, for arranging this tour for the students.

Additional photos from the entire field trip can be found here. Thank you once again to everyone that helped make this all-day field trip such a great success!