Branch YM Groups Get in the E-Week Spirit

Branches across the state celebrated E-Week February 16-22, 2020 with a variety of events. Younger Member (YM) groups played an important role in coordinating and participating in special E-Week events. The Austin and Houston Branch YM groups share how they celebrated below:

Houston Branch Attends Casino Night

The ASCE Houston Branch YM group attended Casino Night, an event organized by the Engineer’s Week Committee to honor the Young Engineers of the Year from engineering societies throughout Houston. The 2020 ASCE Young Engineer of the Year is Sarah Alvarez PE, CFM. Sarah is a Project Manager for Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) Houston District Hydraulics Sections. Sarah has been active with the ASCE Houston Branch since 2014, serving on the younger member committee, the board of direction, and as a committee chair with the Texas Section. She currently serves as the ASCE Houston Branch President-Elect. The Casino Night provided a fun event to honor Sarah and network with young engineers from other engineering organizations.

YMF Austin Kicks Off Engineers Week with Their Fourth Annual Joint Networking Happy Hour

For the fourth year in a row, YMF Austin hosted their mega Networking Happy Hour to kick off Engineers Week! The Networking Happy Hour was held on the Monday of Engineers Week at Abel’s on the Lake – a restaurant and bar overlooking Lake Austin. As soon as the attendees arrived to Abels’ double deck, they were handed a lanyard with a bingo card on it – prompting the “Networking” portion of the event to begin!

Each square on the bingo card said something to encourage networking, like “meet someone who works in structures” or “talk to someone who is in Engineers Without Borders”. As participants met the requirements of each square, they were eligible to mark it off, with the end goal being to mark off the entire card. Once this happened, the completed card was put in a bowl to draw from for prizes at the end of the evening.

One of the best parts of this event was that many professional organizations and companies came together to make it happen. Event partners included ASCE’s Environmental & Water Resources Institute – Austin Chapter (EWRI), Engineers Without Borders – Greater Austin Chapter (EWB), Young Professionals in Transportation – Austin Chapter (YPT), Institute of Transportation Engineers – Capital Area Section (ITE), ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute – Austin Chapter (SEI), American Society of Civil Engineers – Austin Branch (ASCE), Water Environment Association of Texas (WEAT), the Texas American Water Works Association (AWWA), Black & Veatch, and The Rios Group. YMF Austin feels there is no better way to honor Engineers Week than by celebrating our community, and this event did just that. We’re grateful for the eight professional organizations, two engineering companies, and the 80+ Austin’s civil engineering professionals who joined us in this celebration.

Dallas Branch Celebrates E-Week at Perot Museum

This year, ASCE Dallas joined the Perot Museum in highlighting the field of civil engineering by hosting a penny bridge activity at the Perot’s Annual E-week event. The penny bridge activity involves using one sheet of paper to build a bridge that spans an 8” gap. Students then load the bridge with pennies to test the bridge’s strength. ASCE Dallas had 11 ASCE volunteers and over 100 elementary through high-school students visit the ASCE booth and compete to build the strongest bridge. The strongest bridge this year was built by Sawyer, whose bridge held 424 pennies! Many students, parents, and teachers expressed how much they enjoyed the activity and learning about civil engineering. The Dallas Branch hopes ASCE made an impact and inspired the next generation of civil engineers.