I recently completed two semesters teaching senior civil engineers at my alma mater, Valparaiso University. It was a pleasure and honor to be part of their education—something I took very seriously. But it was a different type of year, as we all know.…
From the Editor: Smart Engineering Urgently Needed to Improve Our Infrastructure
The American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently published its “report card” for America’s infrastructure. I read through the summary,…
From the Editor: Engineering Allows You To Be Part of History
The COVID-19 pandemic has created blocks of time that we didn’t previously have. For some of us, it’s the time we used to spend commuting. For…
From the Editor: Engineers Need To Find Their Voice in 2021
What if you inspected a bridge and found severe rust deterioration of a fracture-critical steel member, and you reviewed previous inspection reports that documented the progression of this condition? And what if you took this information back to the office,…
From the Editor: What’s Past Is Prologue, But the Future Seems Uncertain
For the last three months, I’ve been teaching a senior design class at Valparaiso University, my alma mater. When I say “at Valparaiso University,” I mean “at home, for the university, through online software.” The pandemic has had a significant…
From the Editor: Engineers Need To Lead the Way on Climate Change Mitigation
When our Editorial Director Todd Danielson gave me the heads up that Informed Infrastructure would be introducing a new “special issue” on “Green Engineering” a year from now in October 2021, I thought about the end of this summer season…
From the Editor: Time to Enjoy Nature for Its Beauty … and Engineering
The last few months have certainly been different. Many people are working from home, and there’s much less travel leading to jokes about commute times to the office and how many weeks per gallon cars are reporting as their efficiency standard. This different…
From the Editor: Graduating Engineering Students Face New Challenges
The stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic are beginning to be relaxed in some places. For me, at least for some time yet, I’m choosing to act as if everything is not yet back to normal. Whatever I’m called—baby boomer, dinosaur or grandpa—I’m at…
From the Editor: Engineers Seem to Be Adjusting to New Circumstances
I am a proud Baby Boomer, but I don’t feel like I’m one of those to whom the “OK, Boomer” derogative is directed. Just like every generation, mine has some particular (some might say peculiar) characteristics. But this is a time when all generations…
From the Editor: Spring’s Arrival Leads to Thoughts of Unfrozen Infrastructure
As I write this in early March, we’re experiencing sunny, warm days in the Midwest. We had a warmer-than-average winter with less snow than usual. Spring is the time when we witness the change from gray and white to blue and green. The sky clears itself…
