The last year

Now that I've updated you through last summer, I'll focus on what I've done the last year. Last summer I took a required summer surveying class. The class should be beneficial to me when I'm surveying in Cameroon this summer. After completing my surveying class, I continued to live on campus and worked for Ulliman Schutte Construction in their Miamisburg office. My primary tasks in the office were to estimate architectural aspects of jobs, scan/copy bid documents, and assist other engineers obtain quotations from vendors/subcontractors. Although I didn't like office life as much as being on the jobsite, I worked with fun, intelligent people and tried to learn as much about the bidding process as possible.

In the fall semester, I moved into my second UD house at 218 Lowes Street. I was living with 3 new roommates in a much smaller house but it was just as much fun as the previous year. I was taking another full load of 18 credits in the fall. At this point, I was getting into the meat of civil engineering classes. The classes were tough but it was exciting to see how civil engineers go about designing various systems that we use everyday. After taking these classes, I can't help but be amazed when I walk into a complex building or drive along one of the interstates. It boggles my mind to think about the impact engineers have on our daily lives that we take for granted. We just assume our cell phone will receive calls, our car won't break down, and that buildings will remain standing. I think thats partially why I chose engineering in the first place. I wanted to better understand how the world around me worked.

It was in the fall semester that I first began to seriously look at the ETHOS program at UD. My roommate John had lived and worked in Peru the previous summer. He helped a local school that was interested in advancing its computer technology. Another influence for me to look at ETHOS was 6 fellow civil engineers who had traveled to Cameroon last summer and worked on a water project. You can read about their trip in UD's Quarterly magazine. To summarize, the ETHOS program at UD was started when students decided they wanted to use their technical knowledge to serve others. Since its founding, ETHOS has sent engineering and science students all over the world. These students immerse themselves in the local culture while improving the lives of those around them. After hearing about my friends' rewarding experiences with ETHOS, I applied, interviewed, and was accepted into the program in the fall semester. I was told I would be working with friends and fellow engineers Mark Ewalt and Brian Baker in Cameroon on a water project.

In addition to ETHOS, I was involved in a lot of other interesting activities during my 4th year at UD. In January, I had the opportunity to travel to Denver, CO for a youth leadership conference for the American Society of Civil Engineers. I had been recently elected vice president of our student chapter for the 2009 calendar year. I also travelled with ASCE down to the regional student competition in Bowling Green, KY. We participated in all events again this year, including concrete canoe and steel bridge.

In case you didn't know, I'm also a huge Dayton Flyers fan. I especially love going to volleyball and men's/women's basketball games. Without a doubt, Flyer fans are some of the most loyal and best travelling in the country. I had high hopes for the men's basketball team this past year and they did not disappoint. My former cross-hall neighbor Chris Wright and his boys ended up making the NCAA tournament. Due to my consistent support of the team throughout the season, I had the chance to get tickets to the first and second round games in Minneapolis, MN. I knew I had to go. So 4 friends and I piled into a Chevy Malibu and made the 12 hour drive through the night to Minneapolis. I could probably write a few entries about that weekend alone. It was definitely a classic road trip. We got to Minneapolis (which was a pretty neat area if you ever get the chance to go) and watched our Flyers pull the "upset" over WVU on Friday. It was amazing to be there to witness the first NCAA tourney win by the Flyers in nearly 2 decades. We hung around on Saturday and went to the Mall of America and a local casino where I proceeded to win $50 in video poker. Sunday's game against Kansas didn't turn out the way we had planned, but nonetheless it was still an amazing adventure.

In addition to my "normal" classes in the spring semester, I was also enrolled in CEE 450: Senior Design. This class is a comprehensive design exercise that requires students to use knowledge gained throughout their studies to design a "real world" project. I decided to be a project manager for our senior design class. The other project manager and myself would be responsible for monitoring 34 fellow civil engineers, a few visual arts students, and some mechanical engineers during design of a vast church campus located in West Dayton. This was by far the most time intensive and challenging course I've ever taken. We began working on the project in October and finished up in mid April. I put in hundreds of hours as did many of my fellow classmates. It was an eyeopening semester. The key to good project management is learning about the members of your project team. I really believe that the class will help me in the future. As a class, we became a very close knit group and even hung out on the weekends. I've included a snapshots of the work the visual arts students put into the project showing the buildings and site work that we designed.

After CEE 450 was finally done, it was time to study for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. In order to become a licensed Professional Engineer, an person must meet certain experience and academic criteria. One of those criteria is to pass the FE exam which shows a basic level of engineer knowledge. I was very worried I wouldn't do well on the test, but it turned out UD had prepared me well. I haven't gotten the results back, but I believe I did well enough to pass.

After another finals week, it was time for graduation for many of my friends. It was tough saying goodbye to so many great people that have come into my life since enrolling at UD. Many of them said I was lucky to have the opportunity to come back to UD next year for my "victory lap." I couldn't agree more. After graduation, I headed to Daytona, FL for Dayton to Daytona. Dayton to Daytona is another unique aspect of UD. This year over 2000 UD students made the trip to Daytona, FL for our own little spring break trip. It was so much fun hanging out with many of my friends at the beach. I even got the chance to hang out with some people I hadn't been with since freshman year. It gave me the chance for extended goodbyes to some of my best friends. (free beer everyday wasn't too bad either) Everyday was about 90 degrees and sunny. It was tough to land back in Pittsburgh with 40 degree temps. After touchdown, I would have 2 weeks to finish preparation for Cameroon.

Tomorrow's post will go in depth about our project and the steps we've taken to prepare for our trip.