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Bryan Condon

For session three, I hosted the team at my office. The subject was civil analysis/planning, and the goal for the students to develop a civil plan for their Arts Center Addition project.

I started the session by telling the students what civil engineering is and the path I took to being a professional civil engineer. We then talked about the sort of things a civil engineer would design when taking on a project like the Arts Addition. I discussed site grading, soil compaction, and connection to utilities.

It is a challenge to break down and try to explain your profession in 30 minutes, but I enjoyed the process. I did this with my ACE team last year and remember realizing that I may have become so familiar with my profession that I assume others know what it is engineers do. The other mentors on the team are often helpful in this lesson, asking questions that help simplify often complicated subjects.

After covering the basics of civil site plans, the students talked about what civil features they’d like to incorporate in their design. The students showed interest in grading and how we would handle stormwater runoff. The team developed a site grading plan showing the direction runoff, and even the location for bio-swales and the handling of stormwater quality