ASCE Northeast Georgia BranchPDH Day 2016
The Northeast Georgia Branch of ASCE is proud to offer to its members and other professional engineers the opportunity to earn up to 6 PDH credits on December 19th, 2016 from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The event will be held in the Auditorium (Room 175) of the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences located at 500 D.W. Brooks Drive, Athens, GA (on the University of Georgia campus) and will benefit the ASCE NE Georgia Branch Scholarship Fund.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:
Engineering Ethics – Jason Christian, PhD, PE
How long has it been since we spent time considering the ethical responsibilities of engineering practice? Many of us participated in some ethics discussions in college, but do we intentionally spend time thinking about this subject week to week? This class will refresh the basic principles in the prescribed ethics found in the numerous Code of Ethics maintained and published by our professional societies – but that is the easy part. We will also discuss engineering failures in general and the contributions that ethical considerations have in these unwanted outcomes. Finally, we will discuss the all too common (but avoidable) reasons for some spectacular engineering failures to understand how competence and vigilance can break the chain of events leading to catastrophe.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Christian is an assistant professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia. Hereceived his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from Texas A&M University, and earned his Doctoral degree in environmental Engineering from Rice University. Prior to accepting his current position at UGA, Dr. Christian worked in private practice as a consulting engineer for approximately 20 years –the last 12 of which as President of his own civil engineering consulting in the Houston, Texas area. His academic research includes topics of hydrology, hydrologic disasters and coastal resiliency. Dr. Christian was co-awarded the 2015 Lowry Gillespie, Jr. Curriculum Enhancement Award for the innovation, collaboration, and improvements brought to the Environmental Engineering Capstone course, and was selected as the 2016 Georgia Engineer of the Year in Education by the Georgia Engineering Alliance.
Georgia Licensing Board Update – Russ Pennington, PE
In this class, we willdiscusscurrent activity in the Georgia State Licensing Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, including new efforts to implement random audits of continuing education compliance and improvements in communication from the Board – including enforcement actions.Also, the Board is considering a new Structural Engineering Rule that will most likely be voted on and posted for public notice at the December Board meeting. This new rule represents years of work coming to fruition, and will define the boundaries of who needs to take the 16-hour structural exam moving forward (as well as for those applying for a PE in the CE/SE fieldvia reciprocity) versus who can take a civil exam with a structural emphasis.
About the Presenter:
Mr. Russ Pennington is a Vice President at McGuireWoods Consulting, where he specializes in environmental issues, regulatory affairs and government affairs. His consulting experience includes helping public and private clients with navigating the complex federal, state and local regulatory framework for both strategic planning as well as in active response to compliance measures. Additionally, Russ provides strategic consultation to secure water supplies and infrastructure capacity to support economic stability. Prior to joining McGuireWoods Consulting, Pennington served in State Government as the Director of the Governor’s Water Supply Program, an appointed position within the Office of Interagency Coordination and Management of Water Resources, which was created by Governor Nathan Deal in response to the State’s litigation over water. He was appointed to that position from the GA Environmental Protection Division, where he was Director of Policy and Public Affairs. Russ’ past experience also includes Associate Vice President at HDR Engineering. Russ is a professional engineer and is a graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in Biological Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration. Russ is a member of Georgia’s Professional Licensing Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, the University of Georgia Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Georgia Conservancy Board of Trustees, the University of Georgia’s Environmental Engineering Advisory Board, the Montgomery Elementary School Advisory Board, the Water Environment Federation and its Government Affairs Committee, the GA Association of Water Professionals, and GA Rural Water Association. Russ and his wife Kelli have two daughters, Caroline and Eleanor, and reside in the City of Brookhaven.
Forensics of Concrete Materials – Stephan Durham, PhD, PE
This session will review commonly observed concrete pavement distresses by evaluating trouble shooting methods and preventative actions. Specifically, the presentation will discuss problems observed before concrete has set, problems observed in the first few days after placing concrete, preventing problems that are observed sometime after construction, and assessing the extent of damage in rigid concrete pavements.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Stephan Durham led the development of the new Civil Engineering degree program through its recent full accreditation in the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia. Currently, he serves as the Assistant Dean for Student Success and Outreach of the College of Engineering. He came to UGA from the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) in January 2012 where he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering graduating over 20 MS and Ph.D. students in the area of structural engineering, concrete materials, and sustainability. He has performed past studies for GDOT, CDOT, Federal Highway Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and private industry. He obtained his BSCE, MSCE, and Ph.D. in civil engineering with an emphasis in structural engineering from the University of Arkansas. He is a licensed Professional Engineering in the state of Georgia.
Geotechnical Aspects in Pavement Design – Sung-Hee (Sonny) Kim, PhD, PE
The coursereviews previous AASHTO flexible pavement design guidelines and the current mechanistic-empirical design approach developed under NCHRP 1-37A, including geotechnical input requirement for a reliablepavement design. Specific discussions will include resilient behavior of aggregate base and subgrade soil under traffic loading and potential use of geosynthetics on poor subgrade soils.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Sung-Hee Sonny Kim is an associate professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Georgia. Dr. Kim received his Master's from Georgia Tech and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Before joining academia, Dr. Kim was an integral contributor to several nationwide roadway/airport pavement improvement projects. Further, he has successfully completed nondestructive testing data analysis, pavement structural design and rehabilitation recommendation for Washington Dulles International Airport, Houston William P. Hobby Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Detroit International Airport, and Louisville International Airport. Dr. Kim has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on numerous GDOT/FHWA research projects related to geotechnical and pavement engineering. His primary research has been in the various areas such as the mechanistic constitutive modeling of materials and performance prediction and evaluation of transportation infrastructure. Dr. Kim has written over 40 refereed journal papers and research reports.
Probabilistic Floodplain Delineation – Jason Christian, PhD, PE
This class will present the potential benefits of considering the regulatory floodplain as a probabilistic (instead of a deterministic) feature of our landscape. We will discuss the features and decision-making benefits of these advanced hydrologic tools,as well as how they differ from traditional FEMA-prescribed assessments. We will also cover the data/modeling requirements for generating probabilistic floodplain delineations. Finally, we will consider a case-study to highlight the decision-making benefits for engineers making policy and storm water management recommendations in an understandable way to non-technical political leaders and the general public
About the Presenter:
Dr. Christian is an assistant professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia. He received his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from Texas A&M University, and earned his Doctoral degree in environmental Engineering from Rice University. Prior to accepting his current position at UGA, Dr. Christian worked in private practice as a consulting engineer for approximately 20 years –the last 12 of which as President of his own civil engineering consulting in the Houston, Texas area. His academic research includes topics of hydrology, hydrologic disasters and coastal resiliency. Dr. Christian was co-awarded the 2015 Lowry Gillespie, Jr. Curriculum Enhancement Award for the innovation, collaboration, and improvements brought to the Environmental Engineering Capstone course, and was selected as the 2016 Georgia Engineer of the Year in Education by the Georgia Engineering Alliance.
Biological Waste Treatment – K.C. Das, PhD, PE
This course will review options for organic waste management, with focus on food wastes. Composting and anaerobic digestion will be discussed in detail including process steps, design, equipment needs and product evaluation.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Das is Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia. He presently serves as Director of the Biorefinery and Carbon Cycling Program at UGA that covers areas in environmental engineering and waste to energy including algae biofuels, anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, biochar, and gasification research. In this role, his work has integrated various aspects of both biological and thermal conversion of biomass to value added products to develop the science around integrated biorefineries. This work is trans-disciplinary including the physical, natural and social sciences and engineering.