North Dakota Society of Professional
Engineers
A State Society of the
National Society of Professional Engineers
North Dakota Professional Engineer
In this Issue:
[President's Report] [Engineers
Fight 2009 Flood] [NDSU Update]
[Chapter
1 News] [George Bibel]
[Annual Meeting]
Summer 2009
President's Message
by Bradley Schmidt, P.E., NDSPE President
It’s almost mid-year ’09 as I pen this article to my fellow engineers of North Dakota and some question when our summer will finally arrive? I’ve already heard some news reports talking about fall and the start of school being just around the corner…surreal! We live in some unbelievably fast times these days and sometimes it’s difficult to find those moments when we can just sit back and enjoy a beautiful day of sun and relaxation. For our own good however, we owe that to ourselves and I truly hope you make time to do so in the coming weeks; life is just too short to not stop and smell the roses once in a while.
Meanwhile, back at the shop, your leadership group of NDSPE has been working hard to pick up the pace of our state and chapter activities since the conclusion of our annual meeting in April. We’ve had three board meetings since then and I’m pleased to report that most all of our standing committees are in-place and all but ready to start working on your behalf, not to mention the advancement of our great profession…Engineering!
This newsletter is but one result of our planning efforts; it will replace the hard-copy print once distributed, and is now planned to be published four times a year. News and stories are hoped to be short, eye-catching headline-briefs with the ability to open the full story through a mouse-click. Thanks to James Landenberger and Don Andersen for accepting this challenge on behalf of NDSPE. Their committee – renamed Communications – is one which could use a few more folks to help out.
Another new committee which came out of our 2009 annual meeting is Annual Meeting Planning. Led by Dale Heglund, NDSPE Pres. Elect, along with all the chapter president-elects, this group of people will be the lead for the 2010 NDSPE annual meeting. By involving the chapter president-elects, we hopefully engage those folks closely to the activities of NDSPE, thereby helping them to be more effective chapter leaders when their turn at the helm arises.
And that’s an important goal of mine for 2009: Strong North Dakota chapters! If our local chapters are strong, i.e. active, engaged, and growing in membership, then our state society, and ultimately our national society, will also be strong. An old saying could not be more true – we get the most out of something when we put ourselves into it. So it is with other NDSPE committees as well – Education, Professional & Public Relations, Budget, Membership, Awards, Bylaws & Operating Procedures, Legislative, and Nominations. You’ll be hearing from those folks throughout the year as we work to engage our members and serve our profession. That’s what this is really all about folks – working to serve our profession. In doing so, we honor not only our fellow engineers, but this great profession we’ve chosen and all that it represents.
Recall my opening words above, taking time to…when was the last time you took a few moments to stop and really read the Code of Ethics for Engineers? You can find it with a simple mouse click here: http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html. If it’s been a while, please take a moment to do so. It should be refreshing for many to remember what it is about our profession that caused us to take all those difficult classes in college; what drove us when others simply gave up; what moved us to a higher calling. That is but one aspect that sets engineers apart from other careers. Another good one is the Engineering Creed; much shorter, it reads as follows:
Engineers'
Creed
As a Professional Engineer, I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to
the advancement and betterment of human welfare.
I pledge:
To give the utmost of performance;
To participate in none but honest enterprise;
To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of professional conduct;
To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the profession before personal advantage, and the public welfare above all other considerations.
In humility and with need for Divine Guidance, I make this pledge.
Powerful words written in June of ’54; yet every word still as meaningful today as they were back 55 years ago. They represent what this profession – Engineering - is all about. You should be so very proud to be called an Engineer! I hope you have a great summer! Until next time, kindest regards.
Engineers Fight the 2009 Flood
by Donald
Andersen, PE and Wayne Reitz, P.E.
The spring of 2009 will forever be remembered as a record flood. The Red River in Fargo/Moorhead broke a 112 year old record cresting at over 40 feet. The Missouri River in Bismarck reached a level not seen since before the Garrison Dam was built. Valley City recorded a new record level on the Sheyenne River that broke a 127 year old record. Minot, Jamestown, Beulah, Hazen, and countless other towns and cities throughout North Dakota experienced high water levels during the spring of 2009 that many will remember for years to come.
The Fargo/Moorhead area survived due in large part to the student population; NDSU cancelled classes for 2 weeks, and other institutions and corporations acted in a similar manner. An estimate of the total number of volunteers working on sandbagging efforts would probably reach 30,000 people. The student population probably represented 1/3 of those volunteers. The students were remarkable. The city flood experts traveled around the city indicating the required height of the dikes, which activated the volunteers. Permanent dikes built along portions of the Red River allowed the city to focus on filling in the gaps and building contingency dikes.
Many engineers from government and private engineering firms were involved with the recent flood fight in the Fargo/Moorhead area as well as throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. We singled out three of these engineers and asked them the same questions. Here are some of their responses:
April Walker, P.E., Senior Engineer- Storm Sewer Utility, City of Fargo
Q. How long have you been an engineer and how long have you been in your current position?
A. I have been an engineer for 10 years and about 4 years in my current position.
Q. What engineering skills helped you the most during the recent 2009 flood?
A. For the role that I played the key was general problem solving skills. I had to identify what information was needed, how to get it quickly, and then use it to determine the best course of action to prepare for the threat. Having good elevation data and good hydraulic modeling tools to understand what the threat was at the forecasted river stages was critical. With that information you could decide if you should be building the line of protection with sandbags, clay, or other tools and you could determine how reliable the system was and whether or not a secondary line of defense was in order. Another key element in a flood fight is managing resources. The logistics of delivering 3 million sandbags in an efficient and timely manner is more difficult than one would think.
Q. When did you first start planning for the flood?
A. In essence we are always preparing for the next flood, however I would say that discussion of the potential flood and the need to prepare began last fall and serious preparation for the 2009 flood event began in late January when it was clear that weather conditions were on track to provide for a significant flood.
Q. What surprised you the most about the recent flood?
A. The people...the commitment and dedication of the staff, homeowners, and volunteers...even those who were not from Fargo who just came to help. It is absolutely amazing what can be accomplished by a bus load of High School students. Thank you!
Keith Berndt, P.E., Cass County Engineer
Q. How long have you been an engineer and how long have you been in your current position?
A. I graduated from NDSU and started engineering work in 1983. I was first registered in 1987. I've been in my current position since 1992.
Q. What engineering skills helped you the most during the recent 2009 flood?
A. This type if experience tests a wide variety of engineering skills including but not limited to:
Soils, Hydrology, Hydraulics/Open Channel Flow, Understanding the practical aspects of construction, Making logical technical decisions in the face of a lot of emotional non-technical advice. Oral Communications Skills are also critical
Q. When did you first start planning for the flood?
A. I think it really started following the 1997 flood. The information gathered and studies done since 1997 were instrumental in deciding what to do during this year's contingency. The specific discussions about this spring's specific event started in late February and early March.
Q. What surprised you the most about the recent flood?
A. How severe the flooding could be with snow water equivalents much lower than 1997. It reinforced how vulnerable our region is to flooding. We experienced a record flood even though many factors related to the weather during the melt could have been much worse.
Mark Bittner, P.E., City of Fargo Engineer
Q. How long have you been an engineer and how long have you been in your current position?
A. I have been an engineer since 1973, have worked for the city of Fargo since 1975, and city engineer since 1991.
Q. What engineering skills helped you the most during the recent 2009 flood?
A. Engineering skills useful in flood preparation include preparation of an emergency plan based on good technical information, good elevation data, predicted flood elevations, and the technical expertise to interpret this data along with a good record of past floods and emergency response.
Q. When did you first start planning for the flood?
A. 1/14/09 First flood planning meeting of engineering, public works, finance, emergency management, and city administrator.
Q. What surprised you the most about the recent flood?
A. a. Unbelievable amount of work completed in such a short time to first crest
b. Duration of flood event and the total volume passing through.
c. This was predominately a ND flood. The 1997 flood was predominately a MN flood. We need to be prepared for the time when they both come together.
d. The number of people who indicated they watched the 9 AM flood briefings broadcast on local access TV
Note: We asked each of these individuals if they wanted to provide any additional information.
April provided an excellent 41-slide PowerPoint presentation.
Mark sent a one-page fact sheet on City of Fargo flood protection needs including a comparison of the 1997 and 2009 floods.
Keith added:
“The event underscored how critical our private engineering consultants are in a major flood fight. The ability of local consulting engineers to model expected water surface elevations for a wide range of locations and conditions and to provide almost instantaneous results amazed me.”
NDSPE would like to thank these three individuals for their input to this article, and they would also like to thank the many volunteers and the people and engineers who courageously fought the record flood of 2009.
An Update from NDSU’s College of
Engineering & Architecture
by Nancy Rossland,
Assistant to the Dean of College of Engineering & Architecture NDSU
It has been a very dynamic year for the College of Engineering & Architecture at NDSU…with growing student numbers, hiring new faculty members, transitioning to new buildings, and formalizing new educational partnerships.
This past fall, the college welcomed one of the largest freshman classes in years. This increase, coupled with the additional growth in graduate programs, has brought the total enrollment in the college to nearly 3000 students. In response to this, new faculty positions were added in all departments. The college has also developed a Student Support Center where freshmen students who have undeclared majors in the college can come for advising. A new advising position was also added to assist with pre-architecture and pre-landscape architecture students.
The college’s stud
ent
organizations continue to be a source of
pride, exhibiting high levels of engagement. Competitions, conferences, local
events, and engaging speakers are all hallmarks of the 30 student organizations
in the college. The highly-touted group of civil engineering students making up
the Steel Bridge team recently claimed second place at their National
Competition at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In addition, the Concrete
Canoe team finished 5th in their regional competition held at the
University of Iowa. In the mechanical engineering department, students from the
formula car team recently attended the national competition at the Michigan
International Speedway. Also, the Human Powered Vehicle team competed this
spring in Portland, Oregon.
Architecture and Landscape Architecture students and faculty have moved into Klai Hall, the newest NDSU building located in downtown Fargo. Between this new building and the original downtown building, now called Renaissance Hall, the college’s spaces for architecture and landscape architecture study are truly top-notch. The vacated Ehly Hall and Architecture buildings on campus are being allocated to the Construction Management and Engineering Department and new laboratory spaces for IME, ME, ECE, and CE.
Bison Ventures is the college’s student entrepreneurship process to spin off companies in partnership with the College of Business, NDSU Technology Incubator, and the NDSU Research Foundation. The college is in a proposal round to fund the best ideas with commercial potential and plan to have that process fully implemented in the coming year.
Global partnerships continue to expand and develop. At present, the college has 12 relationships signed or under development in India, China, Brazil, and Luxembourg. From these relationships, the college will gain collaborative senior design experience, student and faculty exchanges, undergraduate transfer students, graduate students and faculty professional development.
Over the course of the next year, the college will continue to develop international partnerships; continue to explore funding for a diversity engineering program; secure additional support for Bison Ventures; develop new laboratories in the former Architecture and Ehly Hall buildings as well as space for the growing population of graduate students.
Chapter 1 participates in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
by Virginia Regorrah, P.E.
According to the National Engineers Week Foundation, the number of women in the engineering profession is not only low, but has seen little improvement in the last two decades. In 1985, women earned 15 percent of the bachelor's degrees in engineering. By 1996, this number had increased to only 18 percent, and now, over a decade later, the figure is just 20%. Each year, the E-Week activities include a special day set aside to focus on the future of this under-represented group, girls in grades K – 12. Studies show that although girls perform well in math and sciences in elementary school and middle school, they often choose not to pursue math and science courses as they progress through high school. Often, they haven’t even considered engineering as a career choice. Why? One answer is that no one has suggested it to them as an option; another answer is that they haven’t been introduced to mentors or role models in the engineering fields. The purpose of Introduce a Girl to Engineering is to give girls an opportunity to hear about engineering, meet women engineers and hopefully, be inspired to continue their math and science studies.
Technically, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day was February 19th this year, as part of the E-Week activities. But for the 63 girls in 5th grade at East Grand Forks’ South Point Elementary School, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day was Friday, May 1st. For the last five years, Chapter 1 members have been visiting the 5th grade classes to introduce the girls to the engineering professions. With their male classmates gone for an extra hour of gym, the girls learn first-hand from women in the profession why they became engineers. After a short discussion on the importance of engineering, the girls are divided into three groups and sent to “practice” the professions of civil, marine and aeronautical engineering. The girls are given 15 minutes to build spaghetti and marshmallow bridges, a foil boat or a paper airplane and then they compete against the other novice engineers to see who was the most successful in their designs. The girls rotate through each of the three stations and after the final rotation, the fledgling engineers with the longest paper airplane flight, highest number of marbles in the foil boat and most pennies on their spaghetti bridges receive hard hats.
Melissa
Cassanelli, a project engineer with AE2S, has participated in the program for
three of its five years, “I think it's a great way for girls to be exposed to a
field they may have never thought about. With so many types of engineers, there
are so many opportunities for different interests. The girls really get excited
about it and have a really fun time and hopefully learn something along the way.
I participate because I wish I had something like this to get me into a
technical background before the end of high school.” Beth Vetter, 5th
grade teacher and math coach at South Point Elementary is an enthusiastic
supporter of the program, “It’s great for the girls to have this opportunity,
and without the boys. With the boys in here, they’d have a tendency to hang
back or the boys would take over the project. But now, it’s all them and they
can see the results – they can do it!” And the best praise are the comments the
presenters get from the participants, “It was fun learning about engineering.
I’m thinking I might pick up on engineering,” wrote 5th grader Anna
in her thank-you letter to the presenters. “It was COOL!”
UND mechanical engineer George Bibel's aviation crash book nets "Bravo!" from Boeing, FAA
George Bibel, a mechanical engineer who knows a thing or two about what causes things to fail, wrote what's become a widely acclaimed read in aviation circles. "Beyond the Black Box: The Forensics of Airplane Crashes" is a leading seller in an academic field that doesn’t often produce stars. Professor Bibel now is much in demand nationally as a speaker and teacher-largely because of this book, which clearly demonstrates his "inside" technical and scientific expertise behind the how and why of airplane crashes caused by mechanical or structural problems. Among many other honors and invitations, Bibel, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of North Dakota’s School of Engineering and Mines recently, recently was appointed as a distinguished lecturer by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Beyond the Black Box, a book detailing aviation disasters caused by mechanical failures, was released in 2007 by the Johns Hopkins University Press and launched at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., to wide acclaim in the aviation sector.The book has now been favorably reviewed, recommended or featured by the New York Times, Discovery Magazine, New Scientist, National Science Teachers Association, Air Safety Week, Avionics Magazine, RAF News and Airliner World. In his capacity as AIAA distinguished lecturer, Bibel has been invited to give presentations about his book at AIAA meetings organized by the General Electric Co., the General Dynamics Gulfstream division, the U.S. Air Force, and others. Bibel also has been appointed to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety team and has lectured at FAA conferences and safety meetings. Bibel also was invited recently by the Boeing Co. to deliver training seminars for its new engineers. Boeing is evaluating incorporating Bibel’s book and seminar into training for new engineers and George Washington University is using the book in an introductory aerospace course. “Our plan is to work with Dr. Bibel to add some detailed proprietary information to the course content and to make it a regularly scheduled course offering, and we are considering breaking it into two four hour long sessions,” said Boeing engineer and UND alum David French, who is the curriculum development integrator for the company. Beyond the Black Box teaches science through accident and crash stories. Bibel wrote a guest column “Listen Up and Fly Right” for the New York Times; the column was reprinted around the world. Bibel was recently interviewed about his book by Neal Conan on National Public Radio Talk of the Nation and on NPR KPCC Los Angeles and WPHT Philadelphia. Bibel’s research into the catastrophic failure of planes, trains, and other engineering structures has led him to develop classroom case histories as a vital part of his engineering curriculum. |
North Dakota Society of Professional Engineers Celebrates 68 years of Success and Achievements
The North Dakota Society of Professional Engineers recently held their 68th Annual Meeting in Bismarck, ND. Over 70 members attended the two day conference which was entitled Engineering Energy E2 and focused on the tremendous opportunities for engineers in the various energy industry fields throughout the state. Presentations were given on coal, oil and gas, ethanol and wind power systems. A tour of the Blue Flint ethanol plant was also conducted.
The society also held an awards banquet at which it recognized the 2008 Young Engineer of the Year, Debbie Jacklitch-Kuiken of Grand Forks, ND. Ms. Jacklitch-Kuiken is a graduate of the University of North Dakota majoring in mechanical engineering. She is a registered professional engineer and works for National Wind Assessments as a project manager and wind analyst.
Receiving honorable mention as candidates for the Young Engineer award were Marie Baker, a registered professional engineer with Ulteig Engineers in Fargo, and Brad Krogstad, a registered professional engineer with Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson in Bismarck.
The North Dakota Department of Transportation was awarded the 2008 Design Project of the Year for its design of the Liberty Memorial Bridge between Bismarck and Mandan. The $47 million dollar project was completed and dedicated in November of 2008 and includes several interesting and challenging design components.
The North Dakota State Board of Registration, along with NDSPE also recognized Ivan Jensen for his long tenure years of service to the engineering profession in North Dakota. Mr. Jensen has been continuously registered as a professional engineer for 60 years. He presently enjoys Emeritus Faculty status at the University of North Dakota where he taught for nearly 50 years before retiring in 1985. During this time he also served as an engineering consultant.
The society installed a new slate of officers for the coming year. Elected to president was Brad Schmidt, PE of West Fargo; Dale Heglund, PE of Bismarck to president-elect; Brian Weiss, PE of Grand Forks to vice president; and James Landenberger, PE of Bismarck to Secretary-Treasurer.
Plans for the 2010 conference are underway with the location to be in Grand Forks.