On October 30th, Chi Epsilon and ASCE held a joint event for Halloween. In this event, both groups filled Halloween pumpkin pails with different types of candies and goodies. The pumpkin pails were then given to Highland Park Elementary School in Upper Darby, PA. Chi Epsilon is proud to be able to help the community while taking part in this exciting community service event.
The pictures above include first graders from Highland Park Elementary School receiving their pumpkin pails.
On Friday, October 25th, Chi Epsilon had a social event at the Corn Maze on Howell Living Farms in Hopewell. Participating members were seniors Luke Aboff, Charles Turi, Kush Patel and Dr. Krstic. All participating members successfully made it through the corn maze and had a great bonding experience.
From the left: Luke Aboff, Kush Patel, Dr. Krstic and Charles Turi.
On Wednesday, October 23rd, Chi Epsilon held a technical seminar. The technical seminar was preformed by Joseph Strafaci, PE, MS, MBA of HNTB and Jay Jeyamohan of NJDOT. The seminar was about the Pulaski Skyway Rehabilitation project. More information on the seminar can be found on the flyer attached below. Chi Epsilon would like to thank Mr. Strafaci and Mr. Jeyamohan for coming in to talk about their project.
Flyer: Technical Seminar
Our Faculty members had an outstanding year. Here are the highlights:
Dr. Michael Horst has became the 2019/20 ASCE NJ Section President. Congratulations!
On Tuesday, October 22nd, ASCE Central Jersey Branch held its annual award dinner. Chi Epsilon would like congratulate TCNJ XE Faculty Member Dr. Thomas Brennan on winning the award for researcher of the year. We appreciate all that Dr. Brennan does for the civil engineering department at TCNJ and Chi Epsilon.
On October 4th, Dr. Andrew Bechtel (center) and Dr. Thomas Brennan (right) traveled to London and received an award for the best research paper in ICE Journal of Transportation Asset Management for 2018. The paper outlined a project on how data taken from GPS signals in cell phones can be used to determine if bridges are functioning properly. Bridges that were causing congestion at their location across the State of New Jersey were first located. This was the same data used to make the roads on Google Maps turn yellow, orange, and red. This was then correlated to a database of bridge condition. When combining the data, bridges that were decaying and causing congestion were flagged. These bridges are easy candidates for replacement. The paper is about using available data to make better decisions about what infrastructure to repair and replace.
Congratulations!
For the third straight year, TCNJ Chi Epsilon has made a donation using Kiva, a non-profit crowd funding website that allows organizations to loan money to low-level entrepreneurs. This year we have decided to donate money to the Junta De Saneamiento Rincón Del Peñón Group, a group based in Paraguay located in the city of Mariano Roque Alonso. They are looking to supply water to 300 families that live in the city. The money will go towards the excavation of a new well. This will increase the amount of water that can be supplied to its users. TCNJ Chi Epsilon looks forward to continue loaning money with Kiva and, in doing so, changing the world, one loan at a time.
For more information on this project and Kiva, you can visit the link below.
TCNJ Chi Epsilon would like to congratulate Brian Rennie, President of Chi Epsilon, on achieving the 2019 Student Scholarship from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Central Jersey Branch. Rennie is a hardworking individual that always performs at his highest potential both in and outside the classroom, and we appreciate all that he does for Chi Epsilon. Congratulations Brian!
New this year is the Freshmen Mentorship Program with Chi Epsilon! The program provides every freshman who is majoring in civil engineering the opportunity to work with upperclassmen throughout the year. Student mentors will work with freshmen to give them a helping hand and ease them into their freshman year.
Our members have been very busy this summer:
Brian Rennie
This summer, Brian has an internship with Suburban Consulting Engineers at their Flanders, NJ office in the Gas Utility department. He has assisted in numerous projects, large and small, by preparing permit plans to be reviewed by the county/state offices prior to construction. These plans require the use of AutoCAD to create a basemap of the existing conditions, annotated sheets of proposed work, and traffic control plans. Brian will also be working with the Land Development department this summer. He has enjoyed learning every day from the designers at SCE and participating in the office activities like Hawaiian shirt Fridays!
Charles Turi
This summer Chuck was a structural engineering intern at Hardesty and Hanover in West Trenton NJ. During his 10 week internship he helped with the design of a double-leaf bascule span movable bridge; creating drawings, checking calculations and performing quantity calculations. He also went on 4 different site visits with other H&H interns to various projects that H&H has worked on or are currently working on. Pictured is Chuck and the other H&H interns on the site visit to Willis Avenue Bridge in NYC, which H&H designed. Chuck: “This summer has been an amazing learning experience and I’ve met and worked with a lot of great people.”
Olivia Cleale
Olivia interned with Specialty Engineering Inc. (SEI), a company which focuses on structural engineering consulting and research, as well as bridge inspections. Olivia worked alongside highly trained and experienced licensed professionals at the Bristol, PA and Blue Bell, PA locations. She was in the field weekly performing routine bridge inspections in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery, Chester, Bucks, Lehigh and Berks counties. When returning to the office, she assisted team leaders in writing inspection reports and preparing both hand drawn and computer generated sketches. Similarly, she reviewed documents and technical papers for publication and created MicroStation drawings and tables for the design of noise walls. Olivia also soldered string gauges to be used for testing on a large scale Philadelphia bridge. She is very thankful for her time with SEI and all that she has learned from her coworkers. She very much looks forward to bringing the experience and knowledge from her internship back to TCNJ with her and in her future endeavors.
Victor Mazariegos
This summer, Victor worked as an intern at Michael Baker International in Hamilton, NJ. Over the course of his internship, he was able to learn about the many technologies that are used behind many projects, such as LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data collection. He assisted the team throughout various steps of a project, including processing and exporting roadway right of way images, asset management, and classifying imperfections on the pavement to determine condition of infrastructure in highways. Victor greatly enjoyed the friendly and professional office environment, getting to meet his coworkers, and learning about all the kinds of work that goes on in an engineering firm. He is excited to see where his career will lead him upon graduation!
Download Spring 2019 Induction Ceremony Newsletter:
Email us if you would like to be added to the newsletter mailing list tcnjcehs@tcnj.edu.
Back row (from left): Ryan, Anthony, Jeremy, Nick, Tommy
Front row (from left): Ashley, Nicole, Taylor, Erin, Jennifer
Taylor Anne Barrett, Magna Cum Laude
Nicole T. Byrne, Cum Laude
Jeremy Bernard Chopp
Thomas Quattrini Cunningham
Ryan Gurriell
Ashley Hyde, Magna Cum Laude
Erin Nicole Lafferty, Magna Cum Laude
Anthony Orlando LaRegina, Magna Cum Laude
Nicholas M. Pellegrino
Jennifer Marianne Puschak, Magna Cum Laude
