The Chapter held its annual Student Night for San Jose State University engineering students on March 5th in Milpitas. Dave & Buster's welcomed attendees for an evening filled with networking, two presentations highlighting incredible concrete projects, and a special presentation by the Chapter.
The Social Hour kicked off the evening to encourage students and employers to introduce themselves. Dinner included barbequed brisket, barbequed chicken, garden salad, Cowboy baked beans, baked mac and cheese, and cornbread.
President Carolyn Phillips welcomed the SJSU students, and introduced Dr. Akthem Al-Manaseer, Professor of Engineering and the students' mentor, who acted as moderator for the evening’s program.
The first presentation was conducted by TY Lin, represented by Carol Choi, PE, Project Manager; and Hardik Patel, PE, Principal Bridge Engineer. The featured project was Montreal’s Samual De Champlain Bridge, a fast-tracked design-build project which was completed in only 48 months. The bridge is a Public Private Partnership (PPP), designed with a 125-year life span, so durability concerns were as important as the construction schedule. The design-build team took advantage of precast and prefabricated elements to meet the expedited schedule.
The second presentation was provided by Peoples Associates Structural Engineers (PASE), represented by Dave Lo, SE and Principal, and Drew Kimball, PS and Project Manager. The presentation focused on concrete in multi-family housing and featured the Front Street Multi-Family Mixed Use Project in Santa Cruz. Built on the infamous sandy soil near the San Lorenzo River, the project incorporates five stories of Type III wood frame construction over a three-story concrete podium. Due to the high traffic area, a mechanical parking lift was used to provide three levels of parking: one at ground level and two below.
Wrapping up the evening, President Carolyn Phillips presented Dr. Al-Manaseer with a “big check” representing the Chapter’s $25,000 donation for this year to the SJSU ACI Student endowment. This was the second installment of the Chapter’s commitment to fund the endowment with a total of $100,000.
The Chapter would like to acknowledge Chapter Student Activities Co-Chair Dr. Akthem Al-Manaseer for his assistance in coordinating this annual event and thank the guest speakers and everyone who was in attendance. Overall, the evening was a huge success, and we hope the players enjoyed wrapping up their evening on the Midway!
President Carolyn Phillips presents Dr. Akthem Al-Manaseer and his students with a really big check!