ASCE Fall Conference Held at UNM

September 29, 2016

asce fall conferenceOn September 23rd the New Mexico Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) held their Fall Conference at UNM. The goal of ASCE NM is to promote the Civil Engineering profession in New Mexico and offer learning opportunities to members. To this end, the Section hosts two engineering conferences every year, in the Spring and in the Fall. ASCE NM represents over 800 ASCE members throughout New Mexico. It is composed of two branches, the Northern Branch (based out of Albuquerque) and the Southern Branch (based out of Las Cruces).  Last Friday more than 80 attendees listened to both technical and professional talks. More than twenty students from UNM attended this conference this year, both undergraduate and graduate students. Students had the opportunity to learn more about the profession and listened to the speakers on several topics related to civil engineering.

The department representation at this conference included: Civil Engineering Chair and Director of the Resilience Institute Dr. Mahmoud Taha, covering the topic: “UNM Resilience Institute: The Opportunity, The Challenge and The Needs”; Dr. Tim Ross, representing UNM at the panel discussion about the ASCE Raise the Bar Initiative Committee, “Introduction to Raise the Bar”; Dr. Fernando Moreu, chair of structures and mechanics; and Dr. Walter Gerstle, past ASCE NM president. This year the keynote speaker was Dr. David Mascarenas from the Engineering Institute at Los Alamos National Laboratory, presenting, “Agile Infrastructure Health Monitoring Solutions to Address Rapid Urbanization, both Domestically and in the Development World”. Other speakers included Dr. Don Ryu from New Mexico Tech and Dante Zuniga and James Silver from the BNSF railroad.