Celebrating Engineers Week
February 19, 2024
Happy Engineers Week (EWeek)! This year, from February 18th to 24th, we are thrilled to join the celebration of the remarkable contributions engineers make to shaping our world. At BETA, we take pride in our ongoing efforts to improve the communities where we live and work. Whether it’s designing safe and sustainable solutions or mentoring aspiring engineers exploring the field, we’re committed to making a positive impact.
In the spirit of this year’s EWeek theme, “Welcome to the Future,” we asked some of our newest engineers about their engineering journey and thoughts on the future of the industry.
Addie
Engineering Designer
Transportation & Traffic
Please share a bit about your journey into engineering. What inspired you to pursue this field?
I really enjoyed building LEGOs when I was younger and have always had an interest in engineering. I decided to pursue civil engineering because the design of bridges and roadways really interested me.
What recent technological advancements have had the most significant impact on the engineering field? How do they contribute to building a brighter future?
I think a technology advancement that has helped engineers is drones. They give us a whole new perspective of the job sites that we are working on.
Ben
Engineering Designer
Transportation & Traffic
What unique contributions do you think younger engineers bring to the table?
I believe newer generations are often familiar with and exposed to much of the developing technology and programs, which often results in new ways to incorporate and improve upon older processes. For example, Python is becoming increasingly popular for analyzing large volumes of data.
How can the engineering community better support and mentor the next generation of engineers?
The best thing the community can do for the next generation of engineers is to work with them – to share the valuable information that exists within the community and how best to incorporate it into the ever-changing field of engineering.
Charlie
Staff Engineer
Transportation & Traffic
What recent technological advancements have had the most significant impact on the engineering field? How do they contribute to building a brighter future?
I think LIDAR and GPR (ground penetrating radar) are two important new technologies in the civil engineering field. The ability to build accurate surveys at the beginning of a project is crucial to its success.
At BETA, we incorporate sustainability and resiliency into many of our projects. How can engineering contribute to solving global challenges such as climate change?
Roadways have the potential to runoff harmful chemicals into our environment. Collecting and treating this runoff appropriately is a must to reduce our impact. Also, building bike lanes when appropriate and creating efficient traffic designs reduces the number of cars on the road as well as idling time, which also reduces impact.