ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Meet Ollie the Civil Engineer

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After more than a decade of experience building teams that build airplanes, Lisa Schleuter has added a new job title to her resume: children’s book ...

Episode 183: Better understanding the AI impact on the AEC industry

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

AI takes up a lot of oxygen in the room right now. But when it comes to specific impacts, do we have a strong industry-wide understanding? Does anyone...

Episode 182: Civil engineering as giving thanks

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This Thanksgiving week we’re reminded of the deep connection between civil engineering and community service. Which of course means the civil engine...

Episode 181: Jerry Cavaluzzi and Dan Harpstead on managing risk

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Infrastructure is risky business. The money is big. The stakes are high. And it’s not something that always gets talked about, but issues of risk mi...

Episode 180: Anna Lisonbee, on why leadership doesn’t have to wait

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Lisonbee is a water resources professional engineer in training for Hansen, Allen, and Luce in Sandy, Utah. And while she is admittedly still ear...

Episode 179: Akhtar Zaman, on finding a civil engineering home

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are a lot of ways to get your message out to the masses in 2025. Social media, videos, podcasts. But not everyone can say they’ve shared their...

Episode 178: Rod Jones, on generous leadership

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rod Jones is a project manager for Holder Construction in Ashburn, Virginia. But even as he is progressing in his own career – ENR named him a Top 2...

Episode 177: Isamar Escobar, on the perks of NOT being a wallflower

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Isamar Escobar joined ASCE as a student several years ago. And since then, she not been a member in name only. She’s ranked among the most active of...

Episode 176: Duncan Griffin, on integrated sustainable design

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With the AI revolution upon us, it’s easy to see technology and human beings on opposite sides of a spectrum. But for Duncan Griffin, director of su...

Episode 175: Rossana D’Antonio, on what we need to know about the aviation industry

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

ASCE members know Rossana D’Antonio as a member of the Society’s Board of Direction. She is the executive director for NV5, a global consulting fi...

Episode 174: Tania Stewart, on how she pursues two careers at once

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tania Stewart is a transportation engineer for the Maryland Department Of Transportation State Highway Administration. Tania Stewart is a professional...

Episode 173: Isabella Salgado, on what happens when a wildfire rips through your neighborhood

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

  The ASCE member mother-daughter team of Minerva Rodriguez and Isabella Salgado celebrated buying a new house last June in the very nice Altadena ne...

Episode 172: Isaac Kontorovsky, on the surprising parallels between civil engineering and IRONMAN racing

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It goes without saying. IRONMAN triathlons are intense. Cold-water swimming for 2.4 miles, followed by 112 miles on a bike, and capped off with a 26.2...

Episode 171: Jean-Louis Briaud and Knut Eriksen, on the power of giving back

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This ASCE Day – coming up next week, Nov. 5 – will mark ASCE’s 172nd anniversary. And that’s a very long time. For an organization to last for...

Episode 170: Maxwell Fletcher, Mariana Vega, and Cing Kim, on the coolest part of being a civil engineering student in 2024

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new school year is upon us. That is a very exciting proposition for civil engineering students worldwide, for ASCE, and for everyone lucky enough to...

Episode 169: Ayanna Howard, on how AI is changing civil engineering right now

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial intelligence is changing the way civil engineering gets done. Ayanna Howard, Ph.D., serves as the dean of The Ohio State University College...

Episode 168: Christine Rice, on what happens when a civil engineer goes on a game show

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Christine Rice, P.E., M.ASCE, is a project engineer for Wood Rodgers in Sacramento, California, and former governor for ASCE’s Region 9. But as of l...

Episode 167: Marsia Geldert-Murphey and Jon Phillips, on if America is an attractive market for infrastructure investors

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

May in Washington D.C., means United For Infrastructure Week. ASCE marked the occasion by releasing a new economic study called Bridging the Gap, anal...

Episode 166: Diniece Mendes, on bringing the cities of the future into today

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Diniece Mendes is director for freight mobility at the New York City Department of Transportation and serves on the ASCE Transportation and Developmen...

Episode 165: Ruwanka Purasinghe, on what makes Los Angeles the best place for civil engineers

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Los Angeles is No. 1 on the 2024 list of ASCE Best Places for Civil Engineers. That’s three straight years for L.A., if you’re keeping track at ho...

Episode 164: Aaron Shavel, on following his mother into a ‘golden age’ of civil engineering

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron Shavel is New York through and through. Born and raised there – and now works as a project manager for TCE, specializing in rail infrastructur...

Episode 163: Erin Novini, on tracking sustainability progress in the ‘environmental, social responsibility, and corporate governance’ world

24 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Erin Novini has blended chemical engineering with environmental engineering as an engineering specialist for consulting firm Trihydro since 2005. And ...

Episode 162: Christopher Chini, on making a tangible difference

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's part two of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee’s sustainability mini-series ...

Episode 161: Emily Grubert, on sustaining the sustainability fight

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This Earth Day, the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee is a launching a sustainabil...

Episode 160: Lauren Taylor, on civil engineering leadership in a modern era

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is civil engineering leadership about people? Or is civil engineering leadership about technical expertise? Yes. Civil engineering leadership is all o...

Episode 159: Isabella Salgado, on connecting your work to something bigger

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“We all want to do something that matters,” Isabella Salgado says. She is a civil engineer for the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering and t...

Episode 158: Travis St. Louis and Michael Palmer, on why the future is modular

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Travis St. Louis and Michael Palmer are evangelists of sorts for modular construction and design. Each took their backgrounds in architectural enginee...

Episode 157: Alyssa Sooklal, on avoiding the trap of competing with other women in the civil engineering workplace

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alyssa Sooklal, P.E., M.ASCE, has accomplished a lot early in her career. She works as a water resources engineer for McCormick Taylor in Baltimore, a...

Episode 156: Ravi Shah, on if it’s possible to achieve a perfect work-life balance as a parent and civil engineer

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can you be a good parent and a good engineer at the same time? Ravi Shah thinks so. Or at least he’s trying his best to do both. Shah is a longtime ...

Episode 155: Rebecca Neilon, on winning the grant to help fund your project

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Even in this era of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, every project can use more money. It’s why grant writing is such a valuable skill in the ...

Episode 154: What civil engineers are thankful for this year

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In episode 154 of ASCE Plot Points, we celebrate the season of gratitude by hearing what civil engineers are thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Episode 153: Shofiq Ahmed, on the great civil engineering balancing act

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shofiq Ahmed was a 2023 ASCE New Face of Civil Engineering honoree. So it’s clear that the traffic engineer for HDR, born in Bangladesh and now base...

Episode 152: Craig Davis, on the 8 elements of infrastructure system resilience

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A new book from ASCE Press called IRP 8, Infrastructure System Resilience: An Engineering Framework for Assessment, Management, and Governance, breaks...

Episode 151: Nalah Williams, on how knowing who you are unlocks your career

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The best thing you can do for your career is to make consistently smart, thoughtful decisions that align with what you are trying to accomplish in thi...

Episode 150: Paul Lee, on his role in the new Cities of the Future film

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ities of the Future, a new film for IMAX and giant screens, is on its way. The second in a partnership between ASCE and MacGillivray Freeman Films, fo...

Episode 149: Julia Williams, on how to be a changemaker in academia

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Williams has never done anything exactly as you might expect. So when she got her Ph.D. in English, she took a professor job at the Rose-Hulman ...

Episode 148: Matthew Low, on finding your path to leadership

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Low is the chief operating officer for Hoyle Tanner and Associates, based in Manchester, New Hampshire, and with regional offices in Florida a...

Episode 147: Donn Digamon and Ahsha McQuain, on motivating and innovating with the Georgia Department of Transportation

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The competition for civil engineering talent right now is well-documented. And in an industry still coming out of the pandemic shake-up, that means in...

Episode 146: Jordan Kubenik, on turning student success into a career springboard

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 2023 ASCE Architectural Engineering Institute International Student Design Competition challenged student teams to consider a real building – th...

Episode 145: Jose Abinazar, on his not-so-simple civil engineering journey

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s another week of work for Jose Abinazar, a project designer for Gannett Fleming in Miami, Florida. But the journey to get to this work week wasn...

Episode 144: Eric Steward, on that time he promised to get a concrete canoe tattoo

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the first ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships approaching this weekend, June 10-12 at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, there i...

Episode 143: Christopher Seigel, on if civil engineers really can do their jobs from home

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As noted in a recent Civil Engineering magazine article, the civil engineering industry is still sorting out whether work-from-home arrangements estab...

Episode 142: Student Sessions – Alysha Curtis, Peter Yu, and Evan Brittenham, on life as a civil engineering student

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode of the ASCE Plot Points podcast is the first of what we’re calling Student Sessions. Three ASCE student ambassadors – Alysha...

Episode 141: Vanessa Eslava, on the fastest-rising city for civil engineers

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ASCE has been publishing its Best Places to Be a Civil Engineer rankings for four years now, based on a combination of salary data, civil engineering ...

Episode 140: Dimitrios Athanasiou, on the theoretical vs. the applied

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dimitrios Athanasiou, Ph.D., E.I.T., A.M.ASCE, is a senior associate of environmental and earth sciences at Exponent in Bellevue, Washington; he has a...

Episode 139: Kevin Brown, on becoming the teacher you wish you’d had

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Brown, P.E., M.ASCE, is a construction services manager at TranSystems in Philadelphia and an adjunct professor  at the College of New Jersey. ...

Episode 138: Sarah Matin, on maximizing the IIJA moment

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Infrastructure advocacy takes center stage this week with the ASCE Legislative Fly-In in Washington, D.C. Sarah Matin, P.E., M.ASCE, Orlando office pr...

Episode 137: Jaffer Almosawy, ASCE’s Minister of Love

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You never know how those engineering skills you develop in your career might translate in other areas of your life. Case in point: Jaffer Almosawy, P....

Episode 136: Jennifer Sloan Ziegler, on quiet quitting

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Issues of workforce dominate the conversation around civil engineering in 2023. And one of latest workforce trends is the notion of quiet quitting. Je...

Episode 135: Antoinette Quagliata, on how sustainability became the norm

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sustainability has come a long way over the course of Antoinette Quagliata's career – from project add-ons to default requirements. A ​manager of ...

Episode 134: Brian Brenner, on viewing your work with childlike wonder

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Brenner, P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of the practice at Tufts University and a principal engineer with Tighe & Bond in Westwood, Massachusetts....

Episode 133: Michel Bruneau, on the blessing of disaster, Part 2

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michel Bruneau, Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng, F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE, returns to the ASCE Plot Points podcast to discuss his new book, "The Blessings of Disaster." ...

Episode 132: Michel Bruneau, on the blessings of disaster, Part 1

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michel Bruneau, Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng, F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE, has a new book out today, “The Blessings of Disaster,” that argues the best way forward –...

Episode 131: Jason Korb, on building up to the challenge

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The ASCENT Tower in Milwaukee – at 25 stories – is the world’s tallest timber building. In episode 131 of ASCE Plot Points, the architect behind...

Episode 130: Duncan Wardle, on innovation on demand

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Wardle, former head of innovation and creativity at Walt Disney Company, will serve as the closing speaker at the ASCE 2022 Convention, Oct. 26...

Episode 129: Colette Easter, on why resilience starts with awareness

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Colette Easter is not a native Kentuckian. But she’s lived and worked there a long time now, and she cares about the state. An engineer with the Met...

Episode 128: Sarah McEwen and Shawn Miller, on the water crisis in Jackson

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah McEwen has worked as a water resources engineer in Jackson, Mississippi, for nearly a decade. Shawn Miller, entering his senior year as a civil ...

Episode 127: Stu Walesh, on adopting a growth mindset

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Stu Walesh is an ASCE distinguished member; a longtime civil engineer specializing in water with experience in the public sector, the private sector, ...

Episode 126: Melissa Hilsabeck, on arriving at your destination job

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every career journey has stops along the way. And for many people, those are just called jobs. But for the lucky among us, those stops along the way e...

Episode 125: Bentley Ruggles, on bringing projects to life with VR

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

These days it takes a lot of different people with a lot of different skills to make civil engineering happen. It really comes down to teamwork and te...

Episode 124: Mehrnaz Doustmohammadi and Michael Anderson, on a new way to do public transportation

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Efficiency is essential these days. There isn’t enough time or money for anything less. And efficiency is borne of innovation. The Office of Public ...

Episode 123: Joel Figueroa-Vallines, on the Surfside tragedy a year later

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Joel Figueroa-Vallines, P.E., F.ASCE, is a structural and forensic engineer and president of SEP+A Engineering Consulting, headquartered in Orlando. H...

Episode 122: Danny Rotter, on how scenario planning will ensure our clean water future

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Big-picture thinking, long-term planning - they seem to be at a premium these days. But not in Reno, Nevada. Not when it comes to clean water. Danny R...

Episode 121: Sam Potts, on the benefits of the medium-sized firm

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Civil engineering careers can take many shapes. You can work for a giant firm. You can work for a smaller firm. But what about those medium-sized firm...

Episode 120: Marsia Geldert-Murphey, on the near-death experience that only made her stronger

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Society members recently voted Marsia Geldert Murphey as the ASCE 2023 president-elect. Clearly, her accomplishments and vision for the organization s...

Episode 119: Ryan Carrusca and Natalia Hoeppner, on the 2022 concrete canoe competition

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The ASCE Society-wide concrete canoe competition returns this weekend for the first time since 2019 – June 3-5 at Louisiana Tech University. In epis...

Episode 118: Doug Taylor, on civil engineers and wildfire resilience

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

May is National Wildfire Awareness Month. Doug Taylor knows. The former president of both the ASCE San Francisco Section and Fresno Branch spent six y...

Episode 117: Holly Piza, on advancing your career in water resources

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Holly Piza, P.E., M.ASCE, is the research and development director at Mile High Flood District in Denver and the 2022 president of ASCE’s Environmen...

Episode 116: Tara Cavalline, Dennis Morian, and Clifford Schexnayder, on why quality control matters in construction more than ever

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As project design and construction continue to develop and change, the importance of quality control only increases. Tara L. Cavalline, Ph.D., P.E., M...

Episode 115: Heng Wei, on disruptive emerging transportation technologies

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute’s Technical Committee on CAV Impacts has prepared a new ASCE publication called Disruptive Emergin...

Episode 114: Tanesa Kassa, on the power of lifelong learning

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tanesa Kassa is a structural detail designer for the Arkansas Department of Transportation. That wasn't exactly where her career started, though. ...

Episode 113: Elyssa Dixon, on coping strategies for civil engineers and stress

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elyssa Dixon, P.E., M.ASCE, ​is an environmental engineer who is very active in ASCE – she is the chair of ASCE’s Committee on Younger Members a...

Episode 112: Michael Bloom, on sustainable infrastructure’s ‘tipping point’

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last December, the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure brought sustainabilty thought leaders from around the world together. A...

Episode 111: Assunta Daprano, on taking a management role at a young age

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's what many civil engineers strive for early in their career: the promotion into a management role. But how do you navigate the job after you've e...

Episode 110: Cameren Lewis, on getting ready to launch his career

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is perhaps no transition period in one's career more rich with emotion – excitement, anxiety, optimism – than the months just before college...

Episode 109: Matthew Jacobson, on making the leap into the civil engineering workforce

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Entering the civil engineering workforce is very different from life as a student. Matthew Jacobson, EIT, ENV SP, A.M.ASCE, knows. He works as a civi...

Episode 108: Eric Czerniejewski, on why infrastructure advocacy doesn’t end with the IIJA

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law last November. But that doesn't mean ASCE's infrastructure advocacy work is complete. ...

Episode 107: Shirley Clark, on public health and engineering

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shirley Clark, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, D.EWRI, M.ASCE, is a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State Harrisburg and vice president of ASCE's E...

Episode 106: Jimmy Bennett, on Future World Vision

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

ASCE launches the Future World Vision desktop app today, Feb. 22, at the new Future World Vision website. In episode 106 of the ASCE Plot Points podc...

Episode 105: Vatsal Shah, on mastering the change-discomfort-growth chain

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Vatsal Shah, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, M.ASCE, had a nugget of wisdom he’d sometimes to refer to: “Change is uncomfortable, but you only grow when you’...

Episode 104: Maxx Taga, on making your own civil engineering luck

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Maxx Taga is an onsite integration manager and facility manager for NASA in Lompoc, California. It's the latest step in a career that has taken man...

Episode 103: Ben Schmidt, on innovating in a changing industry

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

RoadBotics won five awards at the 2018 ASCE Innovation Contest. Since then, the company has only grown. In episode 103 of the ASCE Plot Points podca...

Episode 102: Natalie Palmquist, on faith and civil engineering

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Natalie Palmquist is unique. She has had a plan for her life’s work since she was a teenager. And she’s living out that plan. She graduated from...

Episode 101: Aimee Corn, on what’s next for dam engineering

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aimee Corn wasn't sure where her career would lead, even after she fell in love with civil engineering. But she's happy with the way it worked out: da...

Episode 100: Monique Head, on how to secure research funding

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Applied research is one of the most exciting topics in all of civil engineering. It also can be very complicated to secure the necessary funding. In e...

Episode 99: Del Shannon, on how the bipartisan infrastructure law will change work for the civil engineer

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's one thing to acknowledge that the recent bipartisan infrastructure law will change the civil engineering industry. But, looking deeper, what do t...

Episode 98: Kristina Swallow, on how the bipartisan infrastructure law will change the civil engineering industry

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kristina Swallow, P.E., Pres.18.ASCE, worked for years to advocate with ASCE for infrastructure investment. Now, as director of the Nevada Department ...

What would Robert Moses do? Part 3: Doing right by the community

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's an enticing question to ponder. What would Robert Moses do? How would he navigate the infrastructure landscape of 2022? John Williams, the CEO o...

What would Robert Moses do? Part 2: The business case for anti-fragile infrastructure

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What is anti-fragile infrastructure? And what's the business case for its design? John Williams, the CEO of Autocase and board chair for the Instit...

What would Robert Moses do? Part 1: The need to design for black-swan events

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Williams is speaking at the 2021 ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure, Dec. 7, in a session called "Post-Black-Swan-Event ...

A podcast about a podcast with a podcaster

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The holiday season is a great time to catch up on podcasts, and bridge engineer Luis Duque, P.E., M.ASCE, has a great podcast for your queue.   It's ...

A smarter way to find a job

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mel Butcher is someone who believes that, as she says, "Everyone has something to offer this world to make it a better place." It's the driving philos...

Engineering a small business

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Community has been the driving force in Donya Amiri's career. Especially now. After more than a decade working in the public sector, Amiri has started...

Future weather

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Civil engineering is a tricky balancing act between relying on what has worked for infrastructure in the past and predicting what infrastructure will ...

Defining the problem, solving the problem

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Claudia Gunsch is the Theodore S. Kennedy Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University, where she also serves as the associate ...

Twists and turns

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Bowman, P.E., M.ASCE, is a graduate research assistant at the University of Memphis, vice president of the ASCE West Tennessee Branch, and a new...

Tracking success

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most useful aspects of ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure is the way it takes in a lot of complex information and turns it...

All eyes on Capitol Hill

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The nation turns its attention to Capitol Hill this week, as the House of Representatives reconvenes for what may be one of the busiest weeks of legis...

Hurricane season

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hurricane Ida hit the United States earlier in the month to tragic effect – damage, displacement, and even death. Today, on episode 86 of ASCE Plot...

Reflections on 9/11 (Part 2)

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Mlaker is an ASCE Distinguished Member with more than 40 years of service with the United State Army Corps of Engineers, now in the role of Engin...