Graduated & Almost a PE!

I graduated with a Masters of Engineering with a focus in Structures and Applied Mechanics in May 2017 and couldn't be happier to be done with school. I was working full-time and it was pretty hectic! I learned a lot and had so many great professors. I'm very glad I decided to pursue the structural masters. It helps me a lot with problem solving at work and I have a lot of good references at my desk now.



I took the PE exam in October and I am so glad that I passed it! Now I just need to fill out the paperwork and since I have a masters I only need 3 years of experience to get the license. I should meet that requirement in a few months. I took the structural PM and it was super tough. Since I do retaining walls and civil structures, I don't use many of the building codes often, and you definitely need to be familiar with them for the exam. Studying was very time consuming, and the actual exam experience was very stressful as well, so it is very relieving to have that out of the way! I learned a lot while studying though, and I still reference some of my notes at work sometimes.



I do wish I would have kept better track of what projects I worked on and what specifically I designed/analyzed for each; that makes the SER paperwork so much easier. When writing each "engagement" for the SER you have to specifically say "I designed/analyzed ..." so it is definitely useful to have an organized record of all that. I kept track of the projects and dates, but didn't realize I should have been keeping track of the design tasks as well.

Other than that, at my job I have started mentoring the two interns in our group and it is really rewarding to be able to teach others what I have learned. That is my favorite part of my job at the moment. Also I am getting to the point where several of the projects that I worked on when I started are finally getting built. It's really awesome to see things you helped design get built, but the construction phase of projects can also be a little stressful! It definitely helps you learn a lot.

Another Update!

The beginning of this year, I accepted a full-time position with Walter P Moore's Civil group to work on civil-structure projects. We do a lot of retaining walls, erosion control structures, and some drainage structures. I really love the group I'm working with and I get to go on some interesting site visits.


Wading through a creek to see a potential project site.


Checking out one of our walls.

I'm still taking distance classes at UTA to get a M.E. in Structures. I have five classes down and can't wait to knock out the rest! I'm currently in an Earth Structures class that is helping so much with my current position at work. This summer I plan to take Advanced Reinforced Concrete.

Ana's Visit to Dallas!

Ana is studying English in Houston for about 8 weeks and made a little weekend trip to Dallas.

It was really great to see her again after so long!

We had a great time, although it started out a little rough with my car breaking down right after I picked her up.

Thankfully we still made our way to the State Fair. Ana was shocked at how big everything was, the crazy rides, and all the fried food. (Also shocked that the ticket to get in didn't come with food or drinks lol). She had her first funnel cake and corn dog (and understands America's obesity problem now).

 Afterwards we went up on the roof for a nice view of the city and to enjoy the cool weather.

Then Sunday morning we walked down the street to get some coffee and breakfast.

Then a scooter tour of downtown!

And of course a little window shopping too. :)

I can't wait to go back to Spain one day and see everyone there again and keep learning Spanish. Ana is teaching Spanish to some people over Skype while practicing English with them, so I think I'm going to try to get in on that too!

Post Grad Life

Well here's a quick update!

Senior project went well. We had a water treatment design project.

Graduation was really exciting

I had nice little after graduation break but now back to the engineering world.

After passing the FE in October and finishing the paperwork after graduation, I got my EIT certificate a couple weeks ago!

I started my masters at UTA this spring and am enrolled in Prestressed concrete design with Dr. Chao, so far it is really interesting.

Last week I started working at Walter P Moore in Downtown Dallas. I work in the Structural Diagnostics group and really enjoy it so far. They do restoration/renovation, forensics, parking restoration, and building enclosure. I'll get a wide range of experience here which is really great. I also have the opportunity to work with the structural design group.

Spanish Learning with Ana

Ana, the coordinator at AIDICO is looking for a girl to host this summer. If your interested in living with her to immerse yourself in Spanish culture and learn the language, here's her flyer. She's so sweet and a great host, I'd do this in a heartbeat if I could.

IRES Presentation for Chi Epsilon

Part of the IRES program is to share what we've learned and to try to keep the globalization going. At the end of the semester, I presented my research and experiences at a Chi Epsilon meeting and again at an ASCE meeting. It was nice to reminisce on the great experiences and to share to prospective IRES students! There were a lot of questions about the research and experience in general so it was great to see how interested everyone was in the program. It reminded me how lucky I was to be a part of it!

Outcomes

Now that I am back in the states at home reflecting on the trip I have realized I learned a lot over the past five weeks. This was a great experience for me in terms of both engineering and my education and I really appreciated being part of this program. It is definitely something I'll remember for my whole life. 

I learned several things as a result of this very unique study abroad experience. I learned how to communicate a lot better. Living and working in a city that you are not fluent in the language helps you learn to communicate better since you can’t get your exact point across. It helped me to be able to be less of a perfectionist in that way too. I know some Spanish, but obviously when learning a language mistakes will happen. I do not know how to say everything perfect and this study abroad experience helped me learn that it is okay. I had a lot of conversations where me and the other person probably missed a lot of what we each were trying to say. However, usually we still got the main point of what we were trying to say to each other. Learning how to say things very concise and simple is a very important thing to learn for all parts of life really. But of course I did learn more Spanish, so I will be able to speak more Spanish as a result of this experience. I plan to continue learning Spanish and this experience boosted my Spanish speaking confidence so feel more comfortable practicing the language. This experience helped me realize how much Spanish I actually know. 

Going to Paris with very little knowledge of french made me really realize how much spanish I knew!



I also learned that being on the other side of the world does not really feel any different. Also the differences in technology has helped me learn to be less dependent on it. I care way less about always having my phone with me and fully charged at all times. 

My old school spanish phone

My educational background made some of an impact on my ability to perform on my project. Being a senior in the engineering program with some internship experience helped me feel pretty comfortable with my ability to do well in the program. This project was not incredibly technical though so I do think underclassman would have been just fine with it as well. I think that after all the engineering classes I have taken so far, I knew how to manage my time with the project and also how to work individually. My mentor was very busy so she didn’t have time to explain every tiny thing to me so I had to be able to learn on my own.

This is me and my mentor on the final presentation day

I didn’t have many challenges with the differences in educational training. I really liked the mix of educational backgrounds that were chosen. I think it is great to have people from different points in the degree. I feel like my mentor wasn’t very clear on what was expected of me and I honestly wasn’t clear for a while either. I understood we needed to do the poster and all of that but I was not sure how technical I was supposed to get. My mentor was very helpful and didn’t overwhelm me with things that were out of my range of understanding. She was very patient. Since I’m a visual learner, the language barrier wasn’t a huge problem. I would read the standards in English and then watch the test and ask questions after if I was unclear. Overall, I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the program, but I didn’t expect to be doing what I did. My project was certifying safety equipment so it really didn’t feel like research. My hypothesis didn’t seem like something I was even really able to prove, especially in just four weeks. Overall I still learned a lot about my topic from my mentor and my own reading. Honestly the blogs and reflection paper were challenging for me. It seems so simple to write but I haven’t wrote non-technical papers in so long it is a little strange to get used to.