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Winter Newsletter www.san die go - y m f . or g y m f s a n d ie g o @ g m a i l . c om INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 2 President’s Message Message to Younger Members 2 Student Chapter Updates 4 Monthly Meetings 5 Community Service 6 Conferences 8 Educational Outreach 9 Social Events 11 Featured Member UPCOMING EVENTS Apr 19 Monthly Meeting at Sufi Apr 23 Creek to Bay Clean-up Apr 29 Post PE Happy Hour May 7 Hike & Social with UCSD May 12 Joint Social with ASCE San Diego Section Jun 5 San Diego Growlers Game (Ultimate Frisbee) A Message from the President By Eric Kjolsing, YMF President As we pass the half-way point for the YMF year I’m pleased to announce that YMF has found a new venue for the monthly member meetings. Due to the geographic location, available space, and strong positive member responses obtained following the November meeting, Sufi Mediterranean Cuisine will be the home of the YMF member meetings for the remainder of the 2015-2016 YMF year. I’d like to thank all of the officers involved in the search for a new venue - their hard work is greatly appreciated. I’d like to take this opportunity to mention the upcoming ASCE YMF Officer Elections. Becoming an officer is a great way to be more involved with YMF and expand your professional network. In the coming weeks, YMF will be soliciting nominations for five board positions and eight chair positions. If you are interested in being an officer, please respond to the solicitation or email myself ([email protected]) or President-Elect Dan Nutter ([email protected]) to indicate your interest. If you are on the fence about becoming an officer, I encourage you to come to the April member meeting and talk with current officers about their experiences. The available positions include: President-Elect Treasurer Secretary Vice President - Community Service Vice President – Education Engineering Day at the Mall Chair Golf Tournament Chair PE Review Course Chair Social Chair Membership Chair Newsletter Chair Website Chair Scholarship Chair I hope to see everyone in April! Kevin Anub, E-day Chair at Chula Vista Center (Eday 2016) Page 2 Winter 2016 Newsletter President’s Message to the Younger Members By Mark Webb, ASCE San Diego Section President Why did you become a Civil Engineer? There is no wrong answer and everyone’s answer is different. However, there are a few themes that start to emerge when you ask more than 20 people. A love of math, science and problem-solving commonly emerge. Whatever the answer, the point of my question is to have you remember why and how you became and engineer. It is a journey where you are always learning. My hope is that ASCE is a part of that journey. In the ASCE San Diego Section, or in the YMF, you are able to learn about leadership in a friendly environment and are able to network with other engineers, ask advice or questions or ask for help with being a better engineer. ASCE National has many classes online and in person in the Continuing Ed program. Many books and journals are available for purchase at the National site as well. Consider what can make you better as a Civil Engineer, then as the Nike commercial says: “Just Do It!” Mark Webb, ASCE San Diego Section President UCSD Student Chapter Update By Gabriela Morales, SCSE Public Relations The Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (SCSE) has been very busy this quarter! We started the year off by going to Tijuana through the Esperanza International Organization where we helped build the first story of a house for a family. After two days of shoveling, jackhammering, and concrete pouring, our contribution to the project was complete. Seeing our final product and knowing that we were able to make a difference in the family’s life was a very rewarding experience for our group. Another volunteer opportunity our chapter participated in was helping out with sorting and organizing the donations at one of Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore Centers. Beginning of the house’s construction in Tijuana. SCSE members with the family in front of the completed first story. Page 3 Winter 2016 Newsletter Aside from the volunteering opportunities, our chapter also coordinated a few learning opportunities for our members this quarter. One of these opportunities was the Simpson Strong-Tie workshop. At the workshop, students were able to learn more about some of the products that the company produces and use some of the tools that are used at construction sites today. Through R&S Construction, a few of our members were able to go on a site tour to the new courthouse construction site in San Diego. The students who attended the tour went through different floors of the building to see the various states of the construction project. If you’d like to stay updated on all of our events, please visit our website, scse.weebly.com, where we constantly update our calendars on upcoming events and post photos of all of our activities. And stay tuned for more updates from these events in future issues! *** SDSU Student Chapter Update By Emerson Revolorio, SDSU Chapter Director The SDSU American Society of Civil Engineers chapter started off the year by hosting a retreat at Lake Arrowhead for all of their officers and team captains. At the retreat officers and captains had the opportunity to bond, work together and create a game plan for the Pacific Southwestern Conference (PSWC) hosted By CSU Long Beach from March 31 to April 2. SDSU hoped to place within the top 3 schools and they worked towards their goal by sending their Geowall team to nationals and finishing their Concrete Canoe. In other news, the students recently attended a tour of UCSD’s Engineering Facilities hosted by the UCSD chapter. This was a great event to learn more about the Jacob’s School of Engineering and reunite with their fellow UCSD colleagues. PSWC Captain’s Retreat Concrete Canoe Pour Day Tour of UCSD Jacob’s School of Engineering Other recent events include a Speed Interview/Resume Workshop with YMF and a pre-PSWC BBQ with the UCSD chapter in March. Stay tuned for more updates! If you would like to help out the SDSU Student Chapter in any way please contact Andrew Coba at [email protected]. We welcome alumni and new friends! *** Page 4 Winter 2016 Newsletter Monthly Meetings Each month, YMF holds general meetings featuring a technical presentation with networking, dinner and drinks. Below you’ll find a recap of what we learned about this winter. For more information on our Annual Holiday Party in December, read on to the Social Events section. January – Mid-Coast Trolley Extension By Katie Baker, Newsletter Chair On January 19, 2016 YMF hosted its first monthly meeting of the new year, featuring an enlightening overview of the Mid-Coast Trolley Extension. Greg Gastelum and Frank Owsiany of SANDAG and Nirupa Kannan of Parsons presented on the project and fielded questions from interested YMF members. The Mid-Coast Trolley will extend service from Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego to the University City community, serving major activity centers such as Old Town, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Westfield UTC. This new service will enhance direct public access to other regional activity centers and improve travel options to employment, education, medical, and retail centers for corridor residents, commuters, and visitors. February – Fundamentals of Utility Coordination By Dan Nutter, President-Elect What happens when your roadway widening project impacts existing power poles; your storm drain conflicts with an existing fiber optic duct bank; or your new building foundation coincides with existing electrical manholes? Utility coordination is an essential, and largely unseen, part of every civil engineering project. YMF members enjoy an interesting presentation on engineering work abroad at Sufi Mediterranean Cuisine On February 17 YMF was treated to a lively presentation by Darwin Cruz and Jena Addenbrooke of Dokken Engineering, diving into the procedures, standards, and practices for statewide coordination of utility relocations. The presentation highlighted the distinct and specific steps that must be taken depending on the utility type, its owner, and the complexity of projects to ensure project schedules and construction costs can be controlled. March – International Job Prospects By Dan Nutter, President-Elect YMF had its 5th general body meeting of the year on March 15th held at Sufi Mediterranean restaurant. This meeting continued the strong attendance numbers that our meetings have garnered, showing the strong interest and participation from the younger civil engineering community. The March meeting featured guest speaker Rob Stroop with Group Delta. Rob provided an eye opening presentation on international job prospects and the overseas job market. His presentation encompassed firsthand experience that Rob received while working abroad for nearly a decade. There were roughly 40 members who attended this meeting, and their obvious interest in Rob’s personal experiences sparked interesting questions and conversations. Page 5 Winter 2016 Newsletter Community Service Contributing to our local community is a key value for YMF. Here’s a recap of our impact over the last few months! If you’re interested in participating in any of our upcoming volunteer events, or if you have suggestions for other volunteer opportunities, contact our VP of Community Service, Sharon Liu, at [email protected]. Challenge Ranch Volunteering By Sharon Liu, VP of Community Service FACT: Challenge Ranch welcomes volunteers every 2nd and 4th Sunday from 9am – 1pm! In December, more than twenty YMF members, family, and friends drove out to Challenge Ranch in El Cajon to help out with some tasks around the ranch. Challenge Ranch is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing horseback riding lessons, team building activities, support, encouragement, and inspiration to local underprivileged children. Our group of volunteers joined up with other volunteers on a series of small and large tasks ranging from replacing tree protection wiring near or within the corrals to digging out a drainage ditch and mixing/pouring concrete. Volunteers were able to provide over three hours of support for helping to keep the ranch ready for the children! This was a great networking opportunity for the YMF members and we hope to return to Challenge Ranch to help out in the future! A big thank you to all the volunteers who put in some hard work for a wonderful cause. *** Toys for Tots Drive By Sharon Liu, VP of Community Service As part of the YMF Holiday Party, YMF members generously donated two large boxes of toys and over $200 to benefit the Marines Toys for Tots Foundation! The donated toys made it just in time for distribution to the kids. YMF members donated a variety of awesome toys ranging from basketballs to action figures to puzzles. Thank you everyone for helping to provide gifts to less fortunate children and bring a smile to these children’s’ faces across the San Diego region! FACT: Have you ever wondered what happens to the toys? The Marines collect the toys at the Marine Recruitment Depot and they sort the toys into categories. Numerous local charities stop by and pick-up the toys for distribution throughout the County. *** Page 6 Winter 2016 Newsletter St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen Volunteering By Sharon Liu, VP of Community Service FACT: Every late January to early February, the San Diego County Regional Task Force on the Homeless (RTFHSD) performs a homeless count in the County. Want to help with the count in 2017? Visit: www.rtfhsd.org Based on a January 2015 count by the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless, there are 8,742 homeless individuals in San Diego County. Additionally, St. Vincent de Paul, a partner of Father Joe’s Villages, provides transitional housing and services to nearly 3,100 individuals! Our YMF group has been happy to help out at St. Vincent de Paul Village for several years now and we were glad to be able to return again to assist with serving a healthy and nutritious hot meal. With big smiles on our faces, we were able to offer some joy and hope to the lives of the residents at the village. Thank you everyone for your upbeat attitudes and your willingness to help those who are less fortunate get back on their feet! *** Conferences Annual Western Regional Young Member’s Conference By Shannon Davis, PE In January, four members of San Diego YMF traveled to Anchorage, Alaska for the Annual Western Regional Young Member’s Conference (WRYMC). Our four delegates, along with students form SDSU, UCSD and a few members of the General Chapter, represented San Diego ASCE at the event. The conference covered leadership, club strengthening ideas, current engineering issues, and endorsement nominations for ASCE National chair positions. Meeting awesome younger members from Regions 8 & 9, seeing moose and the northern lights, tasting local microbrews and fresh salmon, and experiencing a 7.1 magnitude earthquake were among some of the most memorable experiences our members brought back. We are looking forward to implementing some of their innovative ideas! San Diego ASCE members attended a brainstorming session at WRYMC 2016. Western Region YMF groups in Anchorage, AK. Winter 2016 Newsletter Page 7 Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC) 2016 By Nicky Galloway, PE The annual Pacific Southwest Conference was held from March 31 through April 2, 2016 at California State University, Long Beach. The annual student conference competition hosted over 1,300 students, faculty, and professionals from 18 universities in southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. This resulted in making the 2016 PSWC the largest ASCE event in the nation! Several San Diego ASCE YMF members were in attendance throughout the conference to support our local teams as well as their alma maters, which span from the central coast to San Diego and inland to Arizona. Some of our members serve as advisors to the student groups we support, San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. We are proud to congratulate SDSU on their fifth place overall finish at the conference, which included a first place win in the concrete bowling competition and third place finishes in the transportation and impromptu engineering design competitions! We would also like to congratulate UCSD on taking second place in the transportation competition! Four of the five concrete canoe judges this year are members of the San Diego ASCE YMF section and enjoyed being a part of the competition again, but from the other side of the judging table. With so many talented students and projects, all of the competitions were very close this year, especially the concrete canoe events. We are proud to congratulate SDSU on their fifth place finish overall in the concrete canoe competition, which included a fourth place finish in the oral presentation. SDSU was strong on the water and took home top five finishes in all of the concrete canoe races - including taking first place in women's slalom-endurance race. We were also very proud of UCSD for not only taking home fourth place in the design paper, but also showing a lot of team spirit and enthusiasm on race day! With the help of the SDSU student group, our San Diego teams made the longest tunnel down the beach to support UCSD's paddlers! A joint YMF alumni social was held after the conclusion of the conference at the Gaslamp Bar in Long Beach. Several of our members attended and a few helped to host this event! The happy hour was a success and an event that will hopefully continue each year after the annual PSWC. Be on the lookout for information regarding next year's PSWC hosted by the University of California, Irvine! Page 8 Winter 2016 Newsletter Educational Outreach E-day at the Mall By Kevin Anub, E-day Chair Engineering Day at the Mall is one of YMF’s biggest and most anticipated events every year. With the great success of last year’s event at the Chula Vista Center mall, the goal of this year was to expand the event and establish more of a presence in the Chula Vista Community. To accomplish this task, an E-day planning committee of 8 YMF members was put together to plan E-day 2016. This year’s event was able to reach out to more than 150 kids with more than 100 volunteers helping throughout the day! Both SDSU and UCSD volunteered at the event, bringing their own cool activities. UCSD hosted a K’nex building and shake table, while SDSU hosted their Steel Bridge project. New to this year is the involvement of the MESA Alliance. The MESA Alliance brought a new activity this year, making prosthetic fingers out of common household items. This activity was a big hit with all the kids. Over the weekend of E-day, the event received recognition from The City of Chula Vista’s Twitter Account, Local Newspapers, and even the Mayor of Chula Vista’s Office. People that attended E-day had lots of fun, and the volunteers did as well. Overall this year’s Engineering Day at the Mall event was a success. Resume Workshop By Bobby Sokolowski, VP of Education YMF and SDSU ASCE teamed up to provide a mock interview and resume workshop on March 16th at 6:00 pm on the SDSU campus. Volunteers from YMF assisted students with resume writing and the interview process, sharing their insights with the next generation of Civil Engineers. For more information on this or future outreach events, please contact Bobby Sokolowski at [email protected]. Page 9 Winter 2016 Newsletter Social Events Holiday Party By Nicky Galloway, Social Chair The annual ASCE YMF Holiday Party was held on December 15, 2015 in place of our December general meeting. The party was hosted at In Cahoots in Mission Valley and included a toy drive for Toys for Tots, a raffle drawing for members in attendance, appetizers, drink specials, pool tables, and line dancing! Over 40 members were in attendance for the holiday celebration. In addition, our members donated a full box of toys and helped us raise over $200 to donate to Toys for Tots to provide toys for children in need during the 2015 holiday season! The event was a fun way to end the 2015 calendar year! *** Night at the Rink with YMF By Nicky Galloway, Social Chair The San Diego Gulls are back in town and ASCE YMF attended a game on January 29, 2016 to cheer on our local hockey team! The night started with drinks and appetizers at Kristy’s MVP near the rink for some pre-game fun, networking, and socializing. Over 60 members joined us in our reserved section for the game, which included souvenir ball caps for each person! The Gulls may not have pulled out a win that night, but thanks to everyone who attended, we had a great time and look forward to more social events to support our local San Diego sports teams! *** Trivia Tuesday at Common Theory By Nicky Galloway, Social Chair Over the winter YMF kept up our new monthly tradition of Trivia Tuesday social night at Common Theory Public House in Kearny Mesa. On the first Tuesday of the month, trivia night has become a fun evening socializing, getting to know one another, and enjoying some tasty drinks. All attendees answer questions on various topics including pop culture, geography, history, and science and technology and pick up some new fun trivia facts throughout the evening. Our next Trivia Tuesday will be held on May 5 at a new location, Park N Rec. *** Page 10 Winter 2016 Newsletter Carlsbad Desalination Tour By Nicky Galloway, Social Chair San Diego ASCE YMF joined the San Diego APWA YP and Las Vegas ASCE YMF groups on March 4, 2016 for a joint technical tour of the Carlsbad Desalination Plant that delivers just over 50 million gallons of fresh water to San Diego County each day! The tour was specially arranged for our groups and included a full tour of the processes and systems involved in the operations, which began in December of 2015. Attendees were able to see first-hand the pre-treatment and secondary treatment operations, the reverse osmosis building, the post treatment processes, and the water storage areas. Over 40 people joined us on this tour and even got to sample desalinated water taken directly from the completed process just prior to our arrival! After the technical tour, our groups headed over to Pizza Port in downtown Carlsbad for some networking and socializing. The groups bonded over pizzas and brews and shared their favorite parts of the day. The day was a fun and successful joint event between the various groups! *** Engineers Week Happy Hour By Nicky Galloway, Social Chair In honor of National Engineer's Week, members of ASCE YMF San Diego met at the new Brew Project in Hillcrest to celebrate on March 24, 2016. Everyone in attendance enjoyed shared appetizers while sipping on some local craft beers. The evening even included a free rum tasting event at the restaurant. It was a beautiful evening to sit outside on the patio in San Diego and enjoy! Attendees shared stories from their engineering adventures and their social activities outside of work. It was a fun event and we look forward to seeing everyone at our other upcoming social events! *** Page 11 Winter 2016 Newsletter Featured Member Each quarter YMF features a different member. If you’re interested in being featured or have someone to nominate, contact our Membership Chair, Kent Cuevas, at [email protected]. Justin Mercer By Kent Cuevas, Membership Chair What’s your background? I am from Santa Clarita, CA, which is a small suburb 40 miles north of Los Angeles. I attended Canyon High School and then went on to the University of Southern California (USC) for a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering. What’s your current job? I am an Engineer at Trevet Civil and Environmental Consultants. We are a small privately owned Environmental firm that has just recently begun a Civil Engineering Design Division. We are a five person team where my role is coordination, research, drafting, and working under our Senior Engineer to get as much design experience as I can. Our most interesting project so far [is] the site design for an ammunitions segregation and storage facility on Camp Pendleton. One of the ammunitions bunkers houses high explosives magazines and is going to be sunk into a hillside, covered with 10 feet of soil, and be sited far away from other occupied buildings based on the appropriate blast radius. We are producing design drawings and calculations for the site layout, grading, sewer piping and lift stations, storm drains, water piping, booster pump stations, and water storage tanks. Website: www.sandiego-ymf.org E-mail: [email protected] What’s your proudest achievement? I’ve been trying to donate my hair to Locks of Love for about 10 years, but every time it gets 7-8 inches long I get sick of the long hair and cut it all off. I finally succeeded in growing my hair to the required 10” ponytail, which took me 19 months! I am very proud to have finally accomplished something that will benefit someone in need. What are your hobbies? What do you enjoy doing in your free time? My two main hobbies are running and playing music. As far as running goes, I really enjoy trail running and adventuring through the wilderness, as well as the occasional road race. Musically, I play the electric guitar, classical guitar, and the drums. I’ve played lead guitar in multiple bands through the years and now I’m exploring song writing and expanding my musical creativity in my spare time. What is your spirit animal? I don’t know much about spirit animals but a quick online quiz (which is actually quite fun) suggests that I am a Crow and it seems spot on! “As a Crow, you are analytical, adaptable, and exceedingly clever. You like solving problems, sharing a hearty laugh with friends, and most of all, enjoying a good meal. Your inquisitive, philosophical nature leads you to constantly question authority and the status quo, sometimes just for the sake of asking, "Why?"” – The Internet Read more of Justin’s interview on our website, www.sandiego-ymf.org.