Chi Epsilon

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.

https://www.kiva.org/funded/1833179?minimal=true

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!

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

• Best Overall Senior Project Award (Redesign of CSX Bridge #1013-158 and Realignment of Rt. 31 in Pennington, NJ)

Ashley Hyde, Magna Cum Laude

• Best Overall Senior Project Award (Redesign of CSX Bridge #1013-158 and Realignment of Rt. 31 in Pennington, NJ)

Erin Nicole Lafferty, Magna Cum Laude

• Vincent W. Dresser Service Award (outstanding service to the Department, the School, and the College)

Anthony Orlando LaRegina, Magna Cum Laude

• Fred O. Armstrong Scholar Award (highest academic achievement)
• Best Overall Senior Project Award (Redesign of CSX Bridge #1013-158 and Realignment of Rt. 31 in Pennington, NJ)

Nicholas M. Pellegrino

Jennifer Marianne Puschak, Magna Cum Laude

Congratulations to the following XE members for receiving scholarships and awards:

ASHE Scholarship

Brian Rennie (’20)

Ashley Hyde (’19)

Ryan Gurriel (’19)

ITSNJ – Fall  Scholarship (Outstanding Undergraduate Student)

Ashley Hyde (’19)

ITSNJ – Spring  Scholarship (Outstanding Undergraduate Student)

Ryan Gurriel (’19)

ITE Pignataro Award

Ashley Hyde (’19)

TCNJ XE chapter has inducted four new outstanding members on April 28, 2019:

Honor Member: James Purcell, PE

Alumni Member: Lauren Santullo (’17)

Undergraduate Members: Kush Patel (’20) and Stephen Villaverde (’20)

From left: Kush Patel, Stephen Villaverde, James Purcell, Lauren Santullo

Congratulations to newly inducted members of TCNJ XE!

We would like to thank Professor Purcell and XE Trustee Kim Dana for their inspirational speeches and thank you to Dean Schreiner for attending our ceremony.

The following XE members were recognized for their outstanding achievements in the 2018-19 academic year:

Outstanding Academic Achievement Award: Charles Turi (’20)

Outstanding Pledge Award: Brian Rennie (’20)

Service Award: Anthony LaRegina (’19)

Best Educator Award: Dr. Vedrana Krstic

From left: Brian Rennie, Charles Turi, Dr. Krstic, Anthony LaRegina

Congratulations to all award recipients!

At the end of the evening, senior XE members received their honor cords in recognition of their contribution to the chapter.

From left: Taylor Barret, Jeremy Chopp, Tommy Cunningham, Ryan Gurriell, Ashley Hyde, Erin Lafferty, Anthony LaRegina, Jennifer Puschak

Congratulations to all graduating seniors!

Download induction ceremony Program here.

Find information about our honor members here.

TCNJ XE seniors Erin Lafferty (team leader). Tommy Cunningham and Jennifer Puschak under advisement of TCNJ XE honor member Dr. Nabil Al-Omaishi won first place in the Metropolitan Region steel bridge competition! After two years of placing second TCNJ team finally took home a win and is advancing to the national competition at Southern Illinois University on June 1, 2019. CONGRATULATIONS!

In Steel We Truss

Back: Dr. Al-Omaishi, Dan Callery, JP Ricci, Tommy Cunningham

Front: Erin Lafferty, Jennifer Puschak

Update: TCNJ placed as second lightest bridge during the national competition! Congratulations again!

On Thursday, April 25th TCNJ Chi Epsilon co-sponsored the Engineering Trivia Bowl with the TCNJ’s National Society of Black Engineers. Senior members Ashley and Anthony, along with juniors Colin and Victor, took home second place at this fun event that put their schooling to the test! Chi Epsilon would like to thank NSBE for organizing this event and for their generous engineering paper prizes!

From left: Ashley Hyde, Anthony LaRegina, Colin O’Hara and Victor Mazariegos (standing)