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CE Club June 2016 Update

Geotechnical Engineering with Terracon

Tim Abrams, a geotechnical engineer at Terracon, gave a presentation and led a great group activity with the CE Club students. He started off by explaining the main elements of geotechnical engineering including soil and rock analysis, foundation system design, and earth retention design. Various foundation systems were also explained, including the drilled shaft pier foundation system underneath Woodrow Wilson High School. Tim also explained that, unfortunately, as a geotechnical engineer, 90% of your work will never been seen. However, it is still an extremely important field of design and truly tests your ability to analyze and predict soil environments since most investigations only involve a handful of boring samples over a large area.

Students were also shown pictures of the tools of the geotechnical engineering profession such as drilling rigs, soil core samples, and the various tests performed in the materials lab at companies like Terracon. Tim also explained how to become a geotechnical engineer, including a recommendation to the students to pursue a master’s degree.

Finally, the students were shown a design problem that required a contractor to cut away a hillside for a building construction project. They then discussed the pros and cons of the various retaining wall solutions which included a tied back drilled shaft wall, a soil nail wall, a cast in place retaining wall, and a mechanically stabilized earth wall. Tim then challenged the students to build their own retaining wall out of pieces of paper cut to resemble soil nails. The team that built a retaining wall with the shortest amount of paper soil nail length was deemed the winner in each class. Additional photos from this presentation can be found online here.

CE Club Field Trip

As a reward for some of the top performing students in the Civil Engineering and Architecture Design class, the ASCE Dallas Branch organized an all-day field trip for Mr. Carver and 10 students. This was a great opportunity for these students to soak in a full day within the engineering and architecture professional realm. 

The day began with a stop at Corgan Architects' office in downtown Dallas. Students were welcomed by Janah St. Luce who had also previously spoken to the students at the beginning of the year in their classroom. Janah gave the students a full tour of the Corgan building including stops at various work stations where the students got to learn about what some architects were currently working on. They also sat through a presentation from the nationally-recognized Corgan Media Lab which produces renderings, commercials, and other CGI services. 

Next, the students traveled up to Addison to attend the ASCE Dallas Branch luncheon which also happened to be Younger Member month. The students were seated at two tables at the front of the room where they got to mingle with some ASCE Dallas Younger Members and listen to the main luncheon presentation by Benchmark Harris on the topic of new tornado design requirements for schools and emergency facilities. The students were also formally recognized at the luncheon by Jonathan Brower, the ASCE Dallas CE Club Champion. 

Finally, the students traveled back down to central Dallas to the Terracon materials testing lab where they were given a tour by Tim Abrams. Tim showed the students many of the laboratory tests performed each day by geotechnical engineers and the lab technicians. This was a great follow-up to the in-class presentation that Tim had given at WWHS just a couple weeks earlier. 

A special thanks to everyone who helped make this spectacular field trip happen, especially to the ASCE Dallas Board for generously sponsoring the students' and Mr. Carver's meals at the branch luncheon. Additional pictures from the field trip can be found online here.  

Traffic Engineering with BGE

Sean Merrell of BGE spoke to the CE Club about his career as a traffic engineer. He first described his career in the army flying helicopters and then ending up at Texas A&M University where he thought he was destined to become an architect. However, he soon learned that he was more of a practical, "meat and potatoes" kind of designer and made the switch over to civil engineering. A student worker position at the Texas Transportation Institute then sparked his interest to traffic engineering within the civil engineering umbrella. 

As a traffic engineering professional, Sean explained many of the things he is responsible for producing safe and efficient designs of, including:

• Illumination
• Traffic signals, signal timing, and striping
• Traffic studies and operations
• Parking facilities 
• Intersection design
• Intelligent transportation systems
• Pedestrian and bicycle facilities 

Sean then showed the students actual plan drawings of the Dallas North Tollway lighting project he is currently working on. He explained the illumination studies that were conducted and the coordination required to design and install roadway lighting systems while dealing with overhead power lines and underground utilities. 

Finally, Sean described some of the national standards for traffic signals and markings and their importance in ensuring the safety of those traveling on the roadways. Students were also shown the controls to a traffic signal control box and a couple of computer simulations that Sean has run on actual intersections in the Dallas area.