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CE Club December 2015 Update

Structural Field Engineer from HILTI

Alexis Clark, the ASCE Dallas Younger Member Chair, came to share her career as a structural field engineer for Hilti with the CE Club. She started off by explaining her path through high school and college as well as the important skills she acquired before and after her start with Hilti. Alexis explained how manufacturers, sales, and consultants fit into the design and construction processes, and that engineers aren’t pigeon-holed into cubicle-restrained design careers.

After giving an introduction to Hilti and the opportunities for growth and development within the company, she briefly discussed firestop and deck fastening products and passed around samples of both to the students. Next, Alexis challenged the students to think like a technical consultant, understand that there can be multiple solutions to a problem, and that asking questions is key to being an engineer by leading them through an anchor design problem.

The students’ “problem” was given in the form of an email from a “client” needing an anchor for a base plate connection complete with geometric constraints and design loads. The class was then divided into six groups and were assigned one of three anchor solutions (adhesive, screw, and wedge anchors) to defend. There were two groups defending each of the three anchor types to show that although a team may have to defend the same product, they may use different reasons in their justification. Alexis explained to the class the three anchor types, the mechanisms by which they distribute loads, and briefly touched on installation positives and negatives. At the end of the teamwork time, each team was called up to defend their solution and the class could openly discuss why different designs and alternatives were considered.

 Core Volunteer from Habitat for Humanity

Ashlyn Kelbly, a Core Volunteer for Dallas Habitat for Humanity, presented to the students at Woodrow Wilson on the inner-workings of the organization. Ashlyn explained how interested families can apply to become Habitat for Humanity homeowners and how Habitat is not simply “giving away” houses. The organization is primarily targeting families earning somewhere between 25%-60% of the area median income and requires the families to go through home ownership and mortgage classes in addition to putting “sweat equity” (or volunteered build hours) into their home.

The students were then shown a couple of the six floor plans that Dallas Habitat for Humanity has available for the homes. There is also a variety of façade options for the houses, which is primarily the result of requests from the Dallas City Council to add some diversity to the Habitat for Humanity houses popping up in various neighborhoods.

Ashlyn then asked the students to list off what they thought some of steps to building a home might be. Students mentioned important things such as: lot size, soil conditions, surrounding area, trees, and wildlife. Ashlyn also explained how Habitat for Humanity has to do their due diligence to check the zoning requirements, flood plain status, access to public water utilities, and access to fire hydrants for the prospective house locations. All of these are things that civil engineers do on a daily basis, and it was great for the students to see how all these requirements and processes tie together to complete a project, even for something as simple as a single family residence. Habitat for Humanity will then subcontract out a geotechnical engineer for a soils report, a foundation engineer for the stiffened slab foundation, and a work crew to construct and install the plumbing and foundation. After all this has been done, the house site is ready for volunteers to begin the wood framed house construction process. Ashlyn showed pictures of all these steps and certainly built plenty of excitement for those going out to the build day the following Saturday.

Finally, the students were broken out into four teams and given a blank site map to develop a house floor plan. Each team was given a different key objective:

• Open floor plan

• Architecturally interesting

• Maximize square footage

• Easy to build

Each team then presented their floor plan to the class and defended their design based on their designated key objective. A special emphasis was made once again on how their can often be many solutions to a single problem when it comes to engineering.

 Habitat for Humanity Build Day

Twenty students, their teacher Mr. Carver, and the ASCE Dallas CE Club Champion, Jonathan Brower, had the opportunity to volunteer on a Saturday build day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The group was fortunate enough to be working on a framing day at a house site in the Joppa neighborhood of south Dallas. This meant that they arrived at the site where there was nothing but a foundation slab and a stack of pre-fabricated stud walls from the Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity Wall Shop.

Students immediately got to work in the morning chalking the slab with wall lines, nailing OSB sheathing to the exterior walls, and learning to use power tools. Before long, groups of students were setting, leveling, and using a nail gun to attaching the stud walls to the house foundation. Students also learned some more of the basic, yet essential, parts of residential wood construction such as water proofing and the importance of setting straight and level walls to produce a safe and appealing home for the homeowners.

A special thanks to Ashlyn Kelbly, a Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity Core Volunteer and ASCE Dallas member, for coordinating this build day. Additional photos from the build day can be found here.