Aspirations

Inside and outside AIDICO I have learned a lot about civil engineering. Outside of AIDICO, I have noticed the very different infrastructure.

 The traffic circles and roundabouts are the most significant difference. They flow so nicely here, actually the traffic in general flows so nicely here. I also noticed all of their crosswalks are further from the intersections and always perpendicular to the street. In my Street & Highway Design class at UTA, I learned that this is a much safer way to handle pedestrian crossing. My favourite part of the infrastructure here is the bike paths! They are so cute! I learned a lot about bikes paths and lanes too and it is great to finally see examples of it in person. I love how the people here walk and bike so much. So much that they have signalized crosswalks! Like the cars and trams have a red light solely to let people cross. I've never seen that in the states. Maybe they have it where there are more pedestrians. Also, I noticed that the texture of the sidewalks change near the crosswalks. I’m pretty sure this is for the blind which is such a smart way to handle it. Maybe they do that in the US too, I forgot already. While working at AIDICO I’ve learned a lot of new civil engineering related things. I´m getting a lot better of a feel for the metric system for sure! I have learned engineering and construction vocabulary in Spanish. This is a great tool for engineers that work in construction. I have learned about the differences in the testing and certification of construction safety equipment. I am also learning to communicate better. Living in an environment with a language barrier, it is important to learn how to say things the simplest way possible and still get the point across. I do consider this to be a civil engineering skill. When working in consulting, it is crucial to be able to communicate the essence of an engineering project to people who are not engineers. Simplicity is always key with communication. I have also learned how to be more aware of dangers in construction sites. The lab I work in is dangerous but my mentor is very good at telling me what precautions I should take. For example, here´s a video of a test we did. We all were away from the testing area since the whole formwork structure could fall.

 I can use this international education experience to help with giving a world perspective on projects. Civil engineering is the design, construction, and maintenance of the physically or naturally built environment. We all live in slightly different environments but civil engineering is still a global thing. We need to be able to compare and contrast what works and what doesn’t when it comes to design and maintenance of our environments. This experience also helps me understand other cultures better and communicate better. This will help a lot in group projects and interacting with others in general. This international experience is definitely helping me shape my future goals. I´m still kind of torn between research and industry but this experience will help me finally decide. Research is great because it is always changing and it helps shape the industry. I like that research is typically not a nine to five job. One of my main life goals was to try to live in Spain for a while and work here. I used to always joke about it so it’s crazy that I´m actually here. Unfortunately, economically that is a terrible idea to stay here beyond this program. So I’m really grateful that I am getting this IRES experience since it is letting me live one of my dreams for 5 weeks. And I hope the economic situation here gets better soon!!

View from my balcony here

 I think the economic problems here are helping me shape my future goals too. It is very inspiring that the people I work with have such a positive attitude and still put 100% into their job given the situation they have been put in. I know from family experiences that even though you have spent so much time building a career, it can easily be taken away at any moment. I feel like the people at AIDICO have this instilled in them too since they’ve seen so many of their co-workers get laid off. This mindset really helps people enjoy their job and not count down to 5 pm everyday or count down to Friday. My career objective is to enjoy what I do and to not take the opportunities I have been given for granted.