SEA-MW YMG Forum

National Air and Space Museum Revitalization Project Tour

Ammar Motorwala — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 20:00:00 GMT

National Air and Space Museum's revitalization project tour, organized by the Structural Engineers Association of Metropolitan Washington's Young Members Group was an eye-opening experience, highlighting the logistical coordination between the design team and General contractor required from delivery of the exhibits to putting them on display, hanging several feet off the ground!

A huge shout out to the presenters from Smoot Construction Co. DC, TYLin/Silman Structural Solutions, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Roschmann Group, and Berlin Steel. Their insights into the complexities of the project and the innovative solutions they've implemented were truly inspiring.

YMG-SE3 Navy Yard Walking Tour

Mon, 01 May 2023 15:58:17 GMT

If you found yourself squeezing past dozens of structural engineers on New Jersey Ave this past Tuesday, you were either on the YMG/SE3 walking tour, or profoundly inconvenienced by the sometimes two-block-long gauntlet of engineers who descended on near Southeast to learn about history and engineering. Presenters representing eight different firms spoke about their projects, and members of the YMG and SE3 Committee shared information about the history of the neighborhood, including the Nacotchtank settlements that predate European colonization.

It was thirsty work, and many of those in attendance gathered for drinks and food at nearby Dacha Navy Yard after the walk. Many thanks to all who presented and helped to organize; the list is long.

If you're eager to learn more, here are some resources:

Building Bridges Across the River nonprofit: https://bbardc.org/

More information about DC's highway system: http://www.roadstothefuture.com/

Resources on indigenous sites in present-day DC: http://onceasitwasdc.org/

Map showing the age of buildings in DC: http://maps.oldersmallerbetter.org/maps/dc/bdg_yr_age_med.html

We've uploaded some pictures from the walk here. Photo credit: Alan Chong, Kellie Farster, Maria Raggousis, and Shambi Eubanks

Bridging the Gap Event

Tyler Smith — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 20:20:06 GMT

Earlier this month, the Young Member Group hosted an SEA-MW meeting at Clyde’s Restaurant at Gallery Place. The meeting included a presentation given by Christian Parker and Gary Strand titled “Bridging the Gap: What Young Engineers Envision vs. What Leadership & Ownership Expect”. The presentation gave insight into both differences and common ground shared between younger and more experienced staff in the workforce as well as how the typical office and operations have changed over time. The presentation also featured live audience polling followed by a lively open discussion with the audience.

The event had great attendance encompassing different experience levels across engineers who were eager to share their experiences and expectations with today’s workforce. Thank you to everyone who attended the event and a special thanks to our speakers, Christian Parker and Gary Strand!

December Happy Hour

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 14:08:55 GMT

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Happy Hour last night at Bronson Bierhall. We filled a long table and feasted on stuffed pretzels, wurst, brussel sprouts, and cheese curds. So scintillating was the conversation that we forgot to get a group picture.

Happy Holidays and stay tuned for more YMG social events in 2023!

- Christian Parker

YMG - Capital Area Food Bank Volunteering

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:34:05 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended the volunteering event at the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C.

The participants were part of a group that packed around 1,200 food boxes for distribution to households who most need that help in the D.C. metropolitan area.

Thanks to the Capital Area Food Bank for this opportunity to serve, and play our part in their mission.

YMG - Tracking Embodied Carbon for Structural Engineers

Aaron Policow — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended this webinar!

Through this quick lunch session, we learned helpful and user-friendly tools for easy embodied carbon takeoff. Chris Bird from Silman, and Sean Agustino from Arup taught how to use SE2050's ECOM, and EC3. These tools can be iterated over the lifecycle of a project for easy tracking with maximum efficiency, and therefore minimized time commitment. The emphasis is that these tools are so user friendly, they add almost negligible additional time toward a project, with unmeasurable benefit to the future of structural engineering.

YMG Hands-on Anchor Demonstration with Hilti

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 12:17:49 GMT

Thanks to everyone who came out to Beltsville for the YMG Hands-on Anchor Demonstration with Hilti!

Participants were able to drill and install adhesive anchors with a variety of equipment and techniques. We also saw demonstrations of overhead adhesive installation, screw anchors with a torque control drill attachment, and pull testing of anchors in uncleaned holes.

Thanks to Hilti for hosting and setting up the demonstrations, and thanks to all who attended.

PE/SE Panel Discussion

Chelci Dell — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:08:00 GMT

In October, the Young Member Group hosted a discussion on PE and SE licensure. Six panelists shared their experience on a wide range of topics related to exam preparation, test taking tips, filing for reciprocity, and maintaining continuing education requirements. The panelists had experience taking both the PE and SE exams as well as the California specific Surveying and Seismic exams. The panelists also represented several different homes states which allowed for great discussions about the varying requirements across jurisdictions.

The Young Members Group was excited to be able to hold this event in person which allowed for a more engaging experience. The audience volunteered several questions and topics of their own in addition to those posed by the mediator. The eagerness from prospective professional engineers and the input from recently licensed engineers, overall, made for a very exciting and informative conversation. Thank you to all who participated in this event!

2021 Lightning Lectures

Ting-Wen Wang — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 16:00:00 GMT

The Young Members Group had the opportunity to host the annual Lightning Lectures Night virtually on April 14th, 2021 as a lunchtime presentation. Last year's event was canceled due to the pandemic, however, this year we had seven great presenters with a wide range of engrossing topics. These topics sparked many great conversations/ Q&A among the presenters and audiences during the event.

This year we learned about: a career path as a Structural Engineer for the Dept. of State’s Overseas Buildings Operations, fast track construction of a Wastewater Treatment Plant, the structural design of the Atieh II Hospital in Tehran, a review and prevention of the various structural issues in existing buildings, an overview of Thornton Tomasetti's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiative and their support for the employee's network group for women (Women@TT), a past to present digest of a career as a woman structural engineer starting in the early 1970s, and an introduction to different strategies, venues, and opportunities to think outside the box to benefit and enrich one’s firm and career.

Each presentation has 20 image slides, each shown for 20 seconds. Presenters speak alongside the presentation, with the slides automatically set to change every 20 seconds. It is a fast and engaging presentation style that effectively conveys concise information to the audience.

We look forward to the next Lightning Lectures and many more exciting topics yet to come!

- Ting-Wen Wang

YMG Winter Happy Hour

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 15:38:17 GMT

Young members and friends gathered for drinks, food, and conversation this past week at Mission in DuPont Circle. Thanks to all who joined the Young Members Group for a fun evening of networking! Keep an eye out for upcoming educational and social events with YMG.

-Christian Parker

PE/SE Panel Discussion

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 16:03:14 GMT

In January, the Young Member Group hosted a discussion on the PE and SE licenses. Six panelists shared their experience on a myriad of topics, from resources for exam prep, to balancing personal life with a proper study schedule. A diverse range of ages, home states, and experience levels among the six panelists made for a lively and informative conversation.

Attendance was high, thanks to a wide interest among young engineers in moving towards licensure. Between questions posed by the mediators, attendees volunteered questions of their own, making for interesting discussions while engaging audience members in addition to the panelists. It was encouraging to see a high level of independent research among prospective professional engineers, especially given the complexity and state-by-state variation of the licensure process. Thanks to all who came to learn about—and share thoughts on—this important topic!

-Christian Parker (Photos courtesy of Ting-Wen Wang)

The Workplace We Want

Joshua Jaskowiak — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 16:26:02 GMT

On March 20^th, the Young Member’s Group hosted a panel event titled “The Workplace We Want”. It was moderated by Emily Garrison and Sharon Jankiewicz from Silman and the panelists were Margaret Giron and Todd Holbert from Holbert Apple Associates and Scott Stewart from SK&A. The goal of the event was to continue ongoing conversations about equity in our industry to focus on the future – what we want our workplace to be and how we get there. The group of moderators and panelists consisted of experienced and younger engineers who lead a group discussion and presented their perspectives. A few of the topics discussed during the event were mentorship, burnout, retention in the structural engineering field, and work-life balance. This was a great opportunity to hear from various perspectives of structural engineers in the metro-Washington area, and it is our intent to continue this conversation through subsequent events to discuss how we can lead cultural change in our industry.

Lightning Lectures Night

Thu, 02 May 2019 01:28:41 GMT

On April 10, SEAMW members and guests attended a Lightning Lectures event at Seasons 52 Tysons Corner restaurant for a night full of informative and fun short presentations.

Each presentation has 20 image slides, each shown for 20 seconds only. Presenters need to speak alongside the presentation, with the slides automatically set to change every 20 seconds. It is a fast and engaging presentation style that effectively conveys concise information to the audience.

This year, presenters did a phenomenal job of putting together their slides from a wide range of topics. The specific presentation titles were the following:

Sheeting, shoring, and underpinning (by Morgan Eddy)
Parametric modeling of an elevated rail structure (by Eileen Phan)
Enhanced nitrogen removal facilities project (by Michael Nye)
Advice for young engineers from a not so young anymore engineer (by David Pirnia)
Architectural precast concrete wall panels (by Grace Meloy)
Prismatic glass engineering (by Adam Nizich)
Using Trello for effective project workflow (by Nonish Jain)
Super Typhoon Yutu Hitting Northern Mariana Islands (by Brenda Villarreal)

Each of the presenters received a gift card from the SEAMW Young Member Group (YMG) team towards the end of the event in appreciation for their hard work. Aside from the amazing presentations, the event included a full course meal with dessert brought to the audience during the 15 minute break midway through the presentations.

Alexander Court Vertical Expansion Case Study

Todd Holbert — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:30:00 GMT

On January 23, Mike Goss of Rathgeber/Goss Associates and David Smith of Holbert Apple Associates presented a case study on the Alexander Court Vertical Expansion to a group of SEA-MW YMG members.

The project consisted of a major building repositioning in the core of Washington D.C.'s central business district. The upgrade involved combining 2000 L St NW, an 8-story office building with 3 levels of below ground parking, with an 11-story office building. The result is an entirely redesigned building that connects both original buildings with a modernized 2-story atrium. The final product has over 1,000 linear feet of window line per floor and nearly 800,000 sf of state-of-the-art office space. Originally constructed in 1966, with structural design by T.Y. Lin, 2000 L Street was one of DC's first cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete office buildings. The existing structure is unique using 8" thick slabs to create 41'-0" bays with 15ft cantilevers at the east and west and a 10 feet cantilever at the north and little to no mild reinforcing steel within the 2-bay post tensioned slab.

Success on this project was made possible because of collaboration from several members of the SEA-MW community. The project's Structural Engineer of Record Rathgeber/Goss Associates along with Holbert Apple Associates, hired by the general contractor for construction phase design assistance, and the strengthening engineering division of Structural, a specialty contractor, all played a significant role in the project.

Michael Goss described the challenges his firm encountered as they designed a 4-story vertical expansion. Design challenges to overcome included the need to provide a lateral system for the taller structure, and upgrading foundations to support the new shear walls that were added. Design of the new vertical structure included significant web openings to allow for ductwork layout to achieve the most efficient building height. They also had to find creative solutions for new slab extensions, and to create a new 2-story lobby space.

Holbert Apple’s involvement in the project started by providing temporary support design and consultation services for the demolition that created the 2-story lobby. Coordination between HAA, RGA, Structural, and the GC was required to complete the lobby demolition and new work. David Smith also described the various other tasks that HAA provided design services for, including support of tower cranes, temporary support at penthouses, and assistance in resolving unforeseen field conditions.

DC Central Kitchen

David Pirnia — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 22:30:00 GMT

- Josh Jaskowiak

On November 29, 16 members of SEA gathered at DC Central Kitchen for a night of festive food preparation and community engagement. Drafting scales and building codes were put aside as SEA members from all around the DC region lent a helping hand in preparing steak, butternut squash, and turkey for that upcoming Saturday’s meal. A good time was had by all in this annual event. We are thankful to DC Central Kitchen for welcoming our volunteers and providing an opportunity to give back.

If you are interested in learning more about DC Central Kitchen and how they have been preparing fresh meals in the DC region since 1989, check out their website at: https://dccentralkitchen.org/

Stay tuned to the SEA Blog for news about our latest efforts to make DC a top place to be for structural engineers.