Austin Branch Newsletter
November 2007	Volume 12, Number 3
In This Issue… Meeting/Speaker Info President's Message Capital Area Foodbank UT Scholarships Austin Maker Faire Meeting Sponsor Info History & Heritage YMF Update UT Austin Update EWRI Award Proposed Classroom Volunteers Needed Continuing Ed. Opportunities	November Branch Meeting – November 13, 2007 Topic City of Austin Commercial Design Standards Speaker Brewster McCracken – Austin City Council When Tuesday, November 13th Social - 11:30 to Noon;  Lunch/Speaker - Noon to 1:00 PM Where Embassy Suites North - 5901 N. IH 35 Cost $15 with RSVP; $5 for Government/Students; Additional $5 without RSVP RSVP Click here to RSVP by Noon, Friday, November 9th \Meeting Sponsor
Quick Links… About Us Austin Branch Golf Tourney Job Board Younger Member Forum
November Speaker: Brewster McCracken, Austin City Council City of Austin Commercial Design Standards Brewster McCracken was re-elected to the Austin City Council in May 2006 with 72 percent of the vote.  In his time on Council, McCracken has championed progressive causes including affordable housing, sustainable and use, emerging technologies policies, expanding access to health insurance, and protecting reproductive rights.  Most recently, Brewster worked for three years to write and pass the Design Standards ordinance and Vertical Mixed Use (VMU) overlay, which Council approved unanimously in 2006. The groundbreaking revision to Austin's development code promotes quality redevelopment and accommodates extra density by returning to traditional development patterns found in Texas courthouse squares and New England villages. VMU requires a mix of uses, and it increases density while reducing traffic through more efficient land use. The ordinance also contains the Austin region's most far-reaching affordable housing density bonus program. VMU accomplishes all of this while establishing rigorous design requirements to ensure high quality development that will replace commercial strips with pedestrian-oriented areas more reminiscent of 2nd Street than of I-35. Brewster was named a national nominee for the American Planning Association’s Distinguished Leadership Award for an Elected Official for his efforts in this area.  In this presentation, McCracken will introduce ASCE members to the exciting new opportunities the VMU overlay holds for Austin.
President’s Message by Kelly A. Barney, PE October was a great month for the Austin Branch of ASCE. The first weekend of the month, several members of the Austin Branch, including myself, attended the ASCE Texas Section Fall Meeting that was held at the Doral Tesoro Hotel & Golf Club in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Branch did a fabulous job in preparing and putting on this year’s Fall Section meeting. It is always a great time for the civil engineers and vendors of Texas and surrounding states to learn together, share ideas with each other and learn from other areas of the state. I always enjoy seeing familiar faces, but it is a great opportunity to network and meet new people as well. Even though my Cubbies did not fair too well in the MLB Playoffs (at least they made it, Houston fans), the Section meeting evening events and field trips were tough to beat. I experienced my first Pace Car ride at the Texas Motor Speedway and got to tour the new Dallas Cowboys Football Complex. Pretty amazing. All and all it was a good conference and I would like to thank all of the companies that allowed your employees to support the Austin Branch and attend the Section meeting. Our October luncheon featured speaker, Chad Marsh from Endeavor Real Estate Group who spoke to us about the proposed Domain development. It was very informative and interesting to hear about all that is yet to be developed over the years to come. If you are like me, I tend to frequent the Domain on my way home from work and cannot wait for the rest of the development to flourish and bring a downtown like feeling to us northerners… I would like to give a special thanks to Linda Barlow for her time and efforts in helping and supporting the Austin Children’s Museum at the Maker’s Faire Event that was held at the Travis County Fairgrounds. We had several volunteers that took time out of their personal lives and weekends to help with the Air Fair activity station making penny parachutes and paper helicopters with the fair going children and families. Thanks to all of these volunteers. Looking forward to November! Please contact me if you are interested in getting involved in the Austin Branch. There is an opportunity waiting for you!
Capital Area Foodbank Fund Drive by Linda Barlow, P.E. – Public Relations Chair Creating special Thanksgiving meals are a tradition for many families. How about yours? I'm inviting you to turn hungry holidays into happy holidays for families in desperate need of food. And this Thanksgiving, thousands of families count on your support. At October’s meeting, attendees donated a total of $23.00 which will provide 115 meals (an average of $0.33 per person who attended the meeting). We can do much better than that! If everyone contributes a minimum of a couple of dollars each, we will make significant strides toward approaching the total amount contributed during our fund drive for the CAFB last year, which totaled $543.00 and fed 2,715 hungry children, adults, and seniors in the Austin area. Cash donation boxes will be available at the both the November and December ASCE Austin Branch lunch meetings. Bring in a few extra dollars and all of the loose change from your house since every cent counts! Because of the special request from the food bank for help with Thanksgiving meals, ASCE will provide our fund drive donations in two parts – one provided to CAFB after the November 13^th meeting for Thanksgiving holiday meals and another provided after the December’s meeting for help with Christmas holiday meals. Let’s show our community that civil engineers work to improve lives in many ways, and one way is by providing support to CAFB and Central Texans in need! Please help ASCE make this food drive result in a meaningful contribution.
Austin Branch Announces Scholarships Totaling $6,000 by Roman D. Grijalva, P.E. – Scholarship Committee Chair The ASCE Austin Branch is proud to announce the availability of four scholarships consisting of two at $2,000 each and two at $1,000 each. The scholarships are intended to provide financial support to University of Texas Civil Engineering students for the Spring 2008 semester. In order to be considered, applicants must be a University of Texas sophomore, junior, or senior registered for the Spring 2008 semester, a Civil Engineering Major, and be a member in the ASCE University of Texas Student Chapter. Scholarship applications will be evaluated for the quality of their written statements, references, GPA, and extracurricular activities. Recipients will be notified of their selection by December 17, 2007 and will be presented to the Austin Branch of ASCE at our January meeting.
Maker Faire Event by Linda Barlow, P.E. – Public Relations Chair The Austin Branch partnered with Austin Children’s Museum to staff a family activities area at the Austin Maker Faire^Ò on October 20 & 21 at the Travis County Expo Center. ASCE volunteers assisted with the Air Fair activity stations which included Penny Parachutes and “Bunny” helicopters. Thanks to our 31 volunteers from various consulting firms, City of Austin, LCRA and UT! You all made this a really fun event for a lot of kiddos! Our volunteers had a lot of fun making a few engineering adjustments to both the Penny Parachute (size and launch procedures – the Bernoulli Blower added an interesting option) and the Bunny Helicopter (it’s amazing what a few additional folds do!) These volunteers got free admission into the Maker Faire^Òwhich was unbelievable! In addition to the kids’ areas sponsored by the Children’s Museum, there were fantastic exhibitions of amazing inventions that were fabulous examples of science, art, craft and engineering all rolled into one HUGE event. Plan to volunteer/attend the event next year in October 2008!
November Meeting Sponsor – Espey Consultants, Inc. Espey Consultants, Inc. (EC) is an environmental and engineering consulting firm with offices in Austin (corporate headquarters), Dallas, Houston, and Laredo, Texas. EC is composed of an outstanding staff with many years of experience in providing environmental and civil engineering services to clients throughout the state of Texas as well as nationally and internationally. EC’s staff has extensive engineering, management, and planning experience to successfully complete a broad range of complex projects in the following disciplines: municipal infrastructure, water resources, environmental, and land development.
Austin ASCE Scholarship Recipients: Where are they now? Andrew Creel, 2004 Scholarship Recipient by Melinda Luna, P.E. – History and Heritage Chair Andrew Creel was one of the 2004 Austin ASCE Branch scholarship recipients. A graduate of the University of Texas in 2006, Mr. Creel is currently a Graduate engineer working with TCB in Austin working in the Land Development Services area. We caught up with Andrew and asked him to give us his thoughts on a few questions. How did the scholarship help out in your education? “I supported myself throughout my college career through part-time jobs during the semester and full-time jobs during the summer, and when I graduated 12 hours of class cost almost $4,000. Not to mention, books can cost over $500 per semester. Needless to say, the Austin Branch ASCE scholarship helped me substantially. I applied the scholarship directly to tuition. Scholarships, for me being a white male, were not easy to come by. When I found out about the Austin Branch ASCE scholarship I was thrilled! Receiving the Austin Branch ASCE scholarship provided me with a much needed scholarship opportunity that provided invaluable support with my college career.” What is the most worthwhile project you have worked on as a graduate engineer? “I must say that the most worth while project that I have been a part of since I graduated has been the Spanish Oaks Residential Development in Bee Caves, Texas. The Spanish Oaks Development is full of unique challenges and opportunities due to its steep terrain and sensitive environmental area. I've had the opportunity to design part of the residential community including the design of drainage/detention facilities and water quality controls. The development is like none other in Austin and promises to be in the spotlight upon further completion.” Is the Austin Branch Scholarship an activity the branch should support? “Like I said before, the Austin Branch ASCE scholarship was one of the only scholarships I found that based its award on academic merit and participation in ASCE with no race or gender component. Scholarships like these are increasingly rare and very much appreciated by the recipients—there is a huge need for more scholarships like this! I cannot express how much the Austin Branch ASCE scholarship helped me.” Andrew wanted to add the he recently got married on August 18th and also bought a new house around the same time. Since he has been at TCB, he was volunteered helped the company get involved with the UT Branch of ASCE by sponsoring the Steel Bridge competition and also sponsoring a UT-ASCE meeting in September of this year. He ended by saying “I am trying to give back to the organized that helped me get where I am now.”
YMF Update by Kimberly Patak, P.E. – Younger Member Forum President Did you know that we have some ball players in the group? Here I thought I was going out to the ASCE softball game for a social event, but these guys really took the outing seriously! We ended up playing the game by “Sandlot” rules – three teams of three, with one all-time defense player, because we had a whopping 11 people show up! We had one all-time cheerleader too! I particularly appreciated the “no strike out” rule for the girls. The event was attended by ASCE members, non-ASCE members, and spouses. You’ve gotta love getting to meet the family! And depending on when you read this, we are either looking forward to a crazy ASCE tailgating event before the UT v. Tech game on November 10 (come on out!), or we’re celebrating a UT victory over the Raiders (hope you had fun)! Go Horns! Visit our website at http://www.austinasce.org/ymf.htm to keep informed about our upcoming events and contact any of our officers or chairpersons if you are a younger member who has not been receiving our Event EVITES! Now on to a serious note…please get your checkbooks ready! The ASCE Younger Member Conference for Regions 3, 6, and 7 is taking place in Austin in January 2008. The Austin Branch YMF is hosting the event and is responsible for raising money to cover some of the expenses of the conference. Please see our website soon for sponsorship opportunities. This is a national conference, so what a great way to get your company’s name out.
UT Austin October Briefing by Ryan Rush, UT Student Chapter Corporate Relations Officer It is easy to see that UT’s ASCE student chapter has made dramatic improvements to the organization and is well on its way to becoming a national flagship chapter. Our group is finally reaping the benefits from our countless hours of effort--with membership levels soaring participation in social events, volunteer efforts, and technical competitions has increased substantially over years past. With thoughtful planning over the summer and throughout September, the UT student chapter of ASCE is prepared to have another successful academic year. We started off the year with an Outreach event taking place over the Labor Day Weekend. A Group UT ASCE Students along a group of Austin ASCE members volunteered their time gutting a mental hospital and building several new homes in the “Musicians Village” with Habitat for Humanity. Our group of 90 was welcomed with open arms as we learned valuable skills from talented carpenters. Thanks to leadership of UT ASCE sponsor Dr. Robert Gilbert, Crespo Consulting Services and alumnus Rose Marie Klee, new UT ASCE president Marco Guzman, and UT ASCE Steel Bridge Captain Ty Womble, this trip was an enjoyable learning experience and we look forward to returning in the future. Even though Technical Competitions take place in the spring, we started preparing and designing over the summer. After beating A&M and finishing 6^th in the nation last summer, our Steel Bridge team returns with three ex-steel bridge captains. With 95% of design completed, our team is led by Captains Ty Womble and Josh Mouras. Our team is mobilizing our fundraising efforts to secure steel in order to begin construction. With the first Concrete Canoe meeting being held last week, we look forward to making a splash at the spring Texas Section meeting. According to Corey Meeks’s FreeShip computer modeling, our hull design is faster than last year’s national concrete canoe champion. In September, UT ASCE was happy to Welcome TCB and Kiewit Texas Construction to our Meetings to speak with our members. With a record attendance at our first meeting of 166 students, students thoroughly enjoyed both presentations and look forward to learning about all of the exciting career options in the civil engineering spectrum. If you would like to get involved with UT ASCE, please contact Ryan Rush at ryan@mail.utexas.edu. Our website can be found at www.ut-asce.org. It contains information for Technical Competitions, Outreach, IM Sports, and Social Events as well as useful contact information to reach our officers.
Quentin Martin Award Proposed by David Ford and David Watkins Quentin Martin 1946-2003 A new Society Award has been proposed to honor the memory of Dr. Quentin Martin, an innovative and successful water resource planner and a frequent contributor to ASCE water resource planning and management committees, conferences, and journals. Upon approval, the Quentin Martin Award will be presented annually to the author(s) of the outstanding practice-oriented paper in the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. The paper may cover any relevant topic, but it must demonstrate clearly the application of advanced or advancing civil engineering technology solution to a real-world problem. At his death on May 11, 2003, Quentin was chief water resources planner of Texas’ Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). Among his many contributions in 18 years at LCRA, he led development of the first water management plan in Texas in 1989, followed by the first drought management plan in 1991. In the late 1990s, Quentin was instrumental in developing a regional long-term water plan under a statewide planning process required by the Texas Legislature. Prior to joining the LCRA, he was employed for 13 years by the Texas Water Development Board and its predecessor, the Texas Department of Water Resources. Quentin also served as a consultant on United Nations water resource projects in Brazil, Spain and India, and generously shared his knowledge and experience with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Naming the award for the best practice-oriented paper in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management after Quentin is particularly appropriate because he won this award for his paper, “Drought Management Plan for Lower Colorado River in Texas,” published in 1991. He later served as Associate Editor and then Editor of the journal. In 2001, he received the ASCE Julian Hinds Award for his distinguished service and contributions advancing the field of planning, development, and management of water resources. The required endowment for a new Society Award bearing the name of an individual is $25,000 (plus $3,500 start-up cost for award design and management), which will be sufficient to cover award costs and conference travel costs of the award recipient(s) at a level of at least $1,000 per year in perpetuity. To formally establish the award, we are seeking contributions or letters of commitment. Contributions should be sent to BrianParsons at EWRI. 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston Virginia, 20191 On behalf of the many colleagues of Quentin Martin who benefited from his friendship and professional contributions, we thank you for your consideration and generosity.
Classroom Volunteers Needed By Laton Carr, E.I.T. – E-Week Chair Early Recruiting! The ASCE Eweek committee is looking for volunteers to assist with classroom presentations at area elementary schools during the 2006-2007 school year. The ASCE Eweek mission is to grab the early interest of potential future engineers so that they will develop and pursue their interest in math and science early in their school careers, and eventually populate the future civil engineering hiring pool! To provide information about the program, The Central Texas “Discover Engineering” Steering Committee will hold their annual Kick-Off event (lunch included) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm at the 3M Innovation Center. Demonstrations of the classroom activities will provide useful information about what ASCE volunteers can expect during school visits. For more information visit www.centexeweek.org or contact the ASCE Eweek chair Laton Carr (lcarr@pape-dawson.com or 454-8711) to volunteer. Thanks!
Upcoming ASCE Continuing Education Opportunities November 8-9 (Dallas, TX) – Progressive Collapse Mitigation: Practical Analysis Methods & Proven Solutions November 28-30 (Dallas, TX) – Design of Foundations for Dynamic Loads For more information go to: www.asce.org/conted/seminars
Thank You to Our 2007 Sponsors Want to be an Austin Branch Sponsor? Gives your company advertising and free postings on our online job board. Click here for more information.
© 2007 Austin Branch American Society of Civil Engineers The Austin Branch Newsletter gives you the latest information on ASCE events and activities. To inquire about this newsletter or to publish articles contact the Communications Director. Contact information for our Board of Directors can be found at www.austinasce.org. National ASCE – www.asce.org Texas Section – www.texasce.org