1st ASCE General Meeting
Wednesday, January 30th
6pm in 1320 DCL


It’s hard to believe that the American Society of Civil Engineers turns 150 years old this year.  Without civil engineers and ASCE, the development of our society’s infrastructure would have been vastly different.  It would be hard to imagine life without the many contributions of civil engineers to the public’s health, safety and standard of living.  But how did all this happen? 

On October 23, 1852, a notice was sent to all the practicing civil engineers in and around New York City as to a meeting to form a professional organization.  There were twelve respondents to the invitation and they met November 5 at Croton Aqueduct in New York.    They formed the American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects, later to become the American Society of Civil Engineers.  So the next time you see one of the 132,000 members of ASCE, tell them Happy Birthday and thanks for all the hard work!

Dear Students,

I would like to welcome everyone back for another semester here in grand Chambana.  The ASCE executive board is working hard to bring you an exceptional semester of interesting speakers, educational fieldtrips, memorable social events, valuable networking experience, and competitive activities. We will be having some very exciting presentations at our meetings ranging from the tragic devastation on 9/11 to the collapse of the crane at Miller Park in Milwaukee so be sure to come and check them out!   We will visit ATREL, Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory, in late February and will journey to St. Louis to check out a Seismic Retrofit Project near the end of the semester.  We have two bar crawls and a camping trip planned for the semester.  And as always, one of our goals is to help our members network with companies so I encourage you to participate in our Shadow an Engineer Program or submit your résumé to our Résumé Book. If you like competition or hands on experience, join the Steel Bridge or Concrete Canoe Teams.  There are many opportunities to get involved in ASCE.  I urge everyone to become a member or a more active member; you will thank yourself for it.  Good luck with this semester and I hope to see you at our first general meeting.

Sincerely,
Cindy Safin
ASCE President

FE Review Sessions
April 20th.  Your death date.  The Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.  Let us help you survive with the world’s best review sessions!  Register for them at the same time and place you register for the exam.  It’s that easy!!  They will begin in March so keep an eye out for posters!  If you can’t wait until March or you have questions, email Katie (kwillenb@uiuc.edu).

Like MacGyver, But Not Really?
Are you the kind of person that watched hours and hours of MacGyver as a kid?  Do you frequently build contraptions that serve no purpose out of ordinary household items?  Is duct tape holding your backpack together?  If you answered yes to any of those questions then Steel Bridge is for you.  If you want the bridge to be more than a paper clip, rubber band, the moons gravitational pull and of course duct tape, then email Nathan (nholman@uiuc.edu) to see how you can help.  And if you ask nicely, he’ll whistle the theme song to MacGyver during the meetings.

Leaving On A Jet Plane
Mark your calendars today!  The ASCE 150th Anniversary National Student Conference will be held from June 21-24.  The event will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  There will be thousands of the best and brightest civil engineering students from across the United States sharing leading edge technologies and visions of the future and it is open to all students.  If you are interested, check out the National Student Conference link on our webpage.


Now you can apply for ASCE membership online!
Just go to  www.uiuc.edu/ro/asce/  and click on the “Membership” link.
The current member list can be accessed through the “Membership Directory” link.