Happy Engineers Week! We spent the week reflecting on what makes a good engineer, what brought our employees to this career, how they share their passion for this kind of work and what it means to others when we do what we do. As we wrap up this week’s Engineers Week, we asked our team a few questions that we hope you find entertaining and insightful!

How do you explain civil engineering to people who don’t know?

I often present to young students on career day at various schools, and I typically keep it simple and start with “civil engineers design roads and bridges.”   If it’s a little older crowd, I often delve into what we do with site engineering and explain that civil engineers design everything on a building site outside of the building, including driveways, parking lots, sewers, waterlines, drainage and grading. If I was cool, I’d say civil engineers take a vision of a site and turn it into reality. – Steve

Everyone seems to know what an architect is, so I tend to describe a Civil Engineer as “The Architect of the Land.” We generally focus on things outside of the building, shaping the land and providing the infrastructure needed to support the buildings that architects design. – Melissa

Someone else just explained to me today the three things you need to know to be a civil engineer…

1. You can’t push a rope.

2. Water and dirt make mud.

3. $#!t (er, um, water) flows downhill.

Good advice for anyone. – Craig

When I try to describe it, and their head turns a funny angle, I fall back to:  Essentially, it’s a 5 year degree in ditch digging. – Tim

Tell us about a moment where you thought to yourself “I love what I do.” What made you think that?

I love being able to see a project come to life. To step onto a job site and see your engineering design set in motion is a really cool feeling. – Melissa

Every time that I’m involved with the planning and design of a new project, and I get to see the progression from concept, to planning, to detailed design, to and through construction…. and I get to see the final product with the end user using and enjoying the space…..I take a lot of pride.  We engineers like to be creative in our problem solving, and therefore I’m stoked any time I can use creativity to solve a unique problem in an effective and efficient manner.  – Steve

What’s the biggest misconception about engineers?

The biggest misconception about engineers is that we are all nerds!!! That is 100% false… we are all “cool nerds”!!! – Melissa

The biggest misconception about engineers is that they have no personality.  Engineers are taught to think analytically and determine the best possible outcome based on the facts.  By nature, they are conservative and have low risk tolerance.  Most engineers are quick witted, loyal and fun to be around. – Nick

That there isn’t any creativity in what we design. We often find ways to be creative when appropriate, but when it comes to designing for roadways where lives are at stake, it’s important to rely on tested design methods and know what you are doing. – Dave

That they are this odd lot of extroverts who favor form over function and have a deep seeded passion for the creative arts.  I guess people just can’t see how it is that we are actually much more into numbers, logic and have horrible tastes in fashion, style and aren’t really that good of communicators and we don’t really excel at grammar and we tend to make run-on sentences. – Greg

Who is the coolest engineer you’ve ever met?

Jim Kleingers, of course!!! – Everyone

All engineers are geeks, so from the perspective of the outside world I haven’t met any “cool” ones.  However, any engineer that can speak well in public is generally viewed by other engineers as the coolest person on the planet.

– Dave

Wow, that’s a tough one.   Isn’t “cool engineer” an oxymoron?  – Steve

What skills are most important to be a good engineer?

A good engineer has a great aptitude for math and science.  He/she understands how things work and is able to explain that to others. – Nick

Of course math skills are a must, but being able to look at one problem and provide multiple solutions is what makes a great engineer. – Melissa

Ability to focus, computer skills, and logic.  Certain types of math are important too, like geometry. – Dave

Listening and understanding the needs of a project and its owner and end users, and being able to translate this into helping the vision become a reality. – Steve

To be ‘engineereeyee’. – Tim

The Kleingers Group recently created plans for the first underground utility connection installed under the new Cincinnati Streetcar while the overhead lines are energized.

Specifically, the Water Service Branch Plan created by Kleingers identifies the routing of a new water service line and the location of the bore pits required to tunnel under the streetcar line.

Like most projects in an urban setting, the routing of the new waterline had to be configured in a tight space while avoiding a number of existing utilities, all at various depths. The location of the bore pits also had to be chosen carefully to work around a large number of existing utilities.

The new water line, installed by Greater Cincinnati Water Works, will service a building currently under renovation by 3CDC.

Plans submitted to Greater Cincinnati Water Works were approved the same day, allowing work to begin quickly.

The project is expected to be the first of many to come that will require extra care to work around the tracks for the Cincinnati Streetcar.

Delaware County is currently conducting a series of public meetings to gather input before they start revising their sanitary sewer master plan. The Kleingers Group recently attend the meetings and is encouraging area developers to get involved.

Two things to note:

1. The county is currently looking for input from developers. The new master plan will affect sanitary sewer plans and development throughout the county. If you are a developer who works in Delaware County, now is a great time to voice your opinions about what you would like to see happen before the planning process gets underway.
2. Delaware County is also looking for information about specific projects to incorporate into the plan. They intend to consider existing and future developments as well as economic conditions, affordability, funding, and infrastructure assessments in developing the master plan. Understanding your plans for the future can assist the county in developing the best master plan.

Getting involved is easy. There is a public meeting tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 20 at the Frank B. Willis Government Building on US 23 North or you can submit your feedback online at www.co.delaware.oh.us/sanitary. You can also find a link to the meeting presentation here.

We’ll try to keep you informed as new developments happen, but getting your feedback in early is important so it can be considered as the county develops the plan.

Today, we hosted a  FIRST® LEGO® League team, and it was so much fun!  FIRST® LEGO® League introduces young people (grades 4-8), to the fun and excitement of science and technology. Teams of up to ten children, led by two screened Lead coaches, participate in a challenge tournament. Teams and events are all over the world.

By designing challenges around topics, participants are exposed to potential career paths within a chosen challenge topic, in addition to solidifying the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) principles that naturally come from participating in the program. Team members also learn valuable life and employment skills which will benefit them no matter which career path they choose.

Many thanks to Nathan Moore, Jason Ellis, and Brad D’Agnillo, for giving awesome presentations with visual demonstrations to the kids. You should have heard the incredibly good questions the kids asked: How does the point cloud show measurements? What do the different colors in the scan mean? What kind of education/degree did you get to do this?

After visiting several job sites, the kids will select a project. If the topic is something they learned here, we have committed to being available to answer questions as they begin the project. We can’t wait to hear if we piqued their interest in something related to engineering, 3D scanning, or sports fields.

What an awesome opportunity to expose young kids to things we do here and encourage them into the survey and engineering professions. The presentations were so good that I could see us taking this show “on the road”….to local middle and senior high schools!