This year’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Northeast Region Symposium took place on April 9 and 10 and was composed of many different events. Over the course of the weekend, UVM Chapter President Clare Nelson and Vice President Matt Nemeth hosted 10 events in collaboration with the club’s active student members, ASCE Regional support staff, Vermont ASCE professionals, and UVM Engineering faculty.
They kicked off the weekend with a welcome ceremony featuring a mindfulness practice from Faculty Advisor, Priyantha Wijesinghe, some words from Regional Director, John C. Folts, and a message from the current ASCE President, Dennis Truax. All speakers emphasized that they look forward to ASCE Student clubs rebounding from the pandemic with a newfound drive to succeed.
Another star event of the symposium was the ASCE Young Voices Panel, where engineering professionals Jeff Bachiochi, Jordan Duffy, Scott Lawson, Matthew Matuszewski, and Nina Truslow all joined a Q & A session. This served as a great opportunity for students across the region to ask questions for those in the careers which they are currently pursuing. UVM hosted Claris Rivera and Danielle Kennedy, who collaborated to present three Leadership Workshops designed to teach ASCE Student Leaders tools or success within their clubs. These workshops were aimed at generating student interest and involvement, ensuring efficiency and effective time management within club meetings, and tips for pursuing careers and reaping the benefits of involvement with ASCE.
The closing ceremony featured remarks from the Dean of UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Linda Schadler, who emphasized her continued support of UVM ASCE and trust in the ability of Professional Organizations providing a crucial connection between academia and the profession in practice. Final words at the symposium were given by ASCE president-elect, Maria Lehman, who gave a direct message to all civil engineering students emphasizing that there has never been a more pressing need for engineers. For the first time in her career, she is seeing a shortage of engineers in the profession and encouraged all students to proudly and confidently use this opportunity to turn our educational background into fulfilling careers.
The most popular event this year was the Student Symposium Paper Competition. Students were asked to write and present a paper based on the prompt for the Daniel W. Mead Prize: “ASCE updated the Code of Ethics in October 2020. When comparing the latest version with the previous version, what impact will the changes have on the civil engineering profession?” Ten dedicated students from different universities in the region shared their insights on this change to the ASCE Code of Ethics and showed that the upcoming generation of ASCE students will consider the code of ethics with scrutiny and care. The panel of judges congratulated Kevin Zhang from Tufts University as the winner of the 2022 Northeast Regional Student Symposium Paper Competition.
The UVM ASCE Student Chapter looks forward to attending this event next year. With the future host still undetermined, we emphasize that the privilege of hosting brings with it many advantages, including increased student involvement, a defined project to work towards, and endless networking opportunities along the way. Being a part of the national ASCE organization is an honor and UVM was pleased to foster this connection between the student chapters.