Page 13 - CEGE Magazine Spring 2021

Rendering of the actual designed project – MnDOT’s I-35W Stormwater Storage Facility –
being constructed along I-35W in Minneapolis
“It is a great experience to serve in a men-
tor role for the UMN Civil, Environmental,
and Geo- Engineering Capstone class. The students pose great questions and pro- vide new insight into the projects being worked on. This semester the project Joel and I are mentoring the students on is a technically challenging project consisting of large underground construction of stormwater storage chambers to mitigate flooding. It is great to observe students apply all they have learned in their time at the University of Minnesota to a real-world project.”
— Michael B. Haggerty, Joel N. Swenson, Barr
“The UMN Capstone experience pro- vides a bridge between the classroom and industry. It is a way for the men- tors to give back to the community and to hone our skills of working with new engineers to help them get up to speed with real world practice. It is incredibly rewarding to see their growth through- out the course but also to follow up
on their progress as they move on into working in industry.”
— John Gervais, Kevin Andrews, ERA Structural Engineering
Recent road resurfacing project related to City of Eagan’s project for the Capstone team
“This is the third time I have been a UMN Capstone mentor for CEGE, and I continue to be impressed with the stu- dents’ enthusiasm and willingness to be stretched beyond their textbook illus- trations. The Capstone endeavor is so valuable to the students as it prepares them for life outside of the classroom. Not only does it grow the solid foun- dation of engineering principles they’ve learned, it also introduces them to the realities of non-engineering aspects that will need to be considered for every project they undertake throughout their career. I think the Capstone proj- ect is critically important as the final step for the students to ensure early success after graduation.”
— Russ Matthys, City of Eagan
One realm of our signal optimization project is determining traffic volumes necessary for our model. This is an area of constant innovation, and our group was able to extract stored video detector data to determine volume characteristics at each intersection.
“What we really value/appreciate from mentoring these students is stepping back and looking at a system with a fresh set of eyes. The signal optimiza- tion realm can get a little deep into the data and terminology, so it’s nice to get a reminder that we may need to modify the way we communicate, something that is reflected back onto the public. It’s also good to get a bit of “back to the basics” as a practitioner, as you’re thinking more about what goes into these parameters at their core, and hopefully finding some ways to improve what we do.”
— Kenneth Levin, Tyler Krage, Alliant Engineering, Inc.
Our thanks to all Mentors of 2020–21!
Tyler Krage, Alliant Engineering Ryan Oesterreich, Arcadis
Joel Swenson, Barr Engineering Mike Haggerty, Barr Engineering Richard Kirchner, BKBM Engineers Kyle Kucharski, BKBM Engineers Dean Mikulik, BKBM Engineers Robin Drucker, City of Eagan
Russ Matthys, City of Eagan
David Lindahl, City of Eden Prairie
Rod Rue, City of Eden Prairie
Carter Schulze, City of Eden Prairie
Nick Bauler, City of Edina
Grace Hancock, City of Edina
Chad Millner, City of Edina
Andrew Scipioni, City of Edina
Kevin Andrews, ERA Structural Engineering
John Gervais, ERA Structural Engineering
Rebecca Gordon, ERA Structural Engineering
Rose Milavitz, ERA Structural Engineering
Ken Levin, Hennepin County Nick Grewe, Limnotech Craig Taylor, Limnotech Thomas Fidler, Stantec
Tyler Johnson, Stantec
Alan Offerman, Stantec
Mark Koivisto, Westwood Professional Services
Adam McDaniel, Westwood Professional Services
Mek Sudhiwana, Westwood Professional Services
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 13