Seminars

The Mid-America Symposium will feature a number of engaging seminars that students can attend. Below is a list of seminars happening at the event, when they are occurring, and a short bio of each speaker.

Company: Kiewit 

 

Format: Virtual, Broadcast in person

 

Presenter: Walter Eggers 

 

Title: Adventures in Structural Engineering 

 

Description: This seminar will be hosted by Walter Eggers, the Chief Engineer of Bridges at Kiewit Infrastructure Engineers, and he will be discussing the SoFi Stadium, Confederation Bridge, and Moosejaw Bridge.  

 

Presenter Bio: Walter Eggers is Kiewit’s Chief Bridge Engineer. Walter has over 25-years’ experience with segmental, arch and cable-stayed seismic design and marine construction. Walter started the bridge-engineering group of within Kiewit Infrastructure Engineers when he joined the company in 2010. Early on his worked centered on providing alternate structural solutions for pursuits and improving the designs of Kiewit’s design-build projects. Currently he provides technical leadership for Kiewit’s in-house structural design, while contribution technical innovations to consultant designs, like the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and many other unique structural solutions for Kiewit’s clients.  

Company: ASCE

 

Format: In person

 

Presenter: Sanjay Tewari

 

Title: What is a Leader?

 

Description:  This seminar series will be hosted by Dr. Sanjay Tewari. In this series “Nuts and Bolts of Running a Student Chapter” will be covered. SMART Goal Setting and “Professional Skills You Need to Succeed” will be covered and how Time Management plays a role in it.

 

Presenter Bio: Dr. Sanjay Tewari is teaches and mentors students at Missouri University of Science & Technology as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering. He joined Missouri S&T in 2018. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Surat, India, M. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Texas A&M University.

 

Dr. Tewari has been awarded with multiple teaching awards and honors. He is involved with student-related activities of various professional organizations such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and American Chemical Society (ACS). In addition, Dr. Tewari has a strong interest in engineering education-related activities. He enjoys teaching various core classes and mentoring students and student engineering societies as a faculty advisor. He is active in pedagogical and technical research. Most of Dr. Tewari’s teaching and research efforts are focused on environmental engineering and foundational civil engineering areas. Specifically, his focus is on drinking water quality and issues related to the treatment of wastewater. His recent efforts have been focused on a variety of separation processes such as physical, chemical, biological, and electrochemical. However, currently, he is more focused on capacitive deionization, electrokinetic, and electrocoagulation for improving water quality and better treatment of wastewater from industrial as well as municipal sources. In addition, his research focuses on sustainability and resiliency of various systems around us. Recently funded projects have been in the area of pollution prevention and sustainability, application of Geographic Information System to environmental management, and resiliency of infrastructure. Other than academics, Dr. Tewari is active in working for AARC Consultants and solve problems and challenges in the field of Risk and Resilience related to infrastructure around us.

Company: Nucor

 

Format: In person

 

Presenter(s): Eric Fossum, Kyle Lacanlale, and Tim Broadwell

 

Title: Building Higher with Nucor

 

Description:  Come learn about Nucor Fabricated Products and compete in a fun engineering/construction challenge against other students. The challenge will feature a Magna Tiles competition.

 

Presenter Bio: Eric Fossum, P.E., Kyle Lacanlale, and Tim Broadwell, P.E. have all been engineers at Nucor for varying lengths of time and have varying experience designing steel buildings and steel building components and leading other engineers. They look forward to sharing their experiences with you.

Company: Kiewit

 

Format: In person

 

Presenter(s): Jim Rowings and Paul Giroux

 

Title: Great Builders Conversations

 

Description: This seminar will be presented by Paul Giroux, the Senior Estimating Manager of Kiewit Bridge and Marine, and Jim Rowings, the Vice President of Technical Development and CLO at Kiewit Corporation. They will be discussing the Great Builders and Leaders of Civil Engineering landmark projects in the style of an interview.

 

Presenter Bio:

Jim Rowings: Jim worked his way through school with Chicago Bridge and Iron and worked as a Boilermaker and eventually as a field engineer. He graduated from Purdue University with a BS, MS and PhD in Civil Engineering. Jim worked in Saudi Arabia where he met his wife LaDona. Together they have three children who were raised in Ames, Iowa. Jim developed the Construction program at University of Kansas and then spent 15 years at Iowa State University as the Professor-in-Charge of the Construction Engineering program and going through the academic ranks there.  In 2001 Jim joined Kiewit as the VP for Organization Development, was a senior manager at MEC in Boston, and then moved back to Omaha in 2007 to lead the development of Kiewit University. Jim served in leadership positions as President of AACE, International (Cost Engineers), Chairman of the Engineering Management Group in ASCE, and Chairman of the DBIA Education and Research Foundation.  He was elected a fellow in ASCE and AACE. Jim received one of the first Distinguished Service Awards from DBIA. Jim served as the editor of the ASCE Construction Engineering and Management Journal for many years.  Jim has been an active ABET evaluator over the last 15 years for Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Architectural Engineering undergraduate and graduate programs both in the US and Overseas. Jim was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2017.

Paul Giroux: Raymond “Paul” Giroux, Dist.M.ASCE received his BS in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University in 1979. For over the past 45 years, he has been with Kiewit Corporation, working on a wide variety of heavy civil engineering mega projects throughout the United States. Paul played a key role in notable projects such as the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, several projects on the Big Dig in Boston — including the new Zakim/Bunker Hill Bridge — and most recently, the new San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge East Span. Paul has served on the Iowa State University Civil Engineering Advisory Board, the Transportation Research Board, and various national committees for the American Society of Civil Engineering

(ASCE). In 2008, he was the ASCE Chairman and featured speaker for Brooklyn Bridge 125th Celebration in New York and, in 2010, he presented the closing speech at the ASCE Hoover Dam 75th Anniversary Symposium in Las Vegas. In 2012, Paul served as the ASCE Chairman and principal lecturer for the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary. In 2014, Paul was a featured speaker at Global Engineering Conference to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal. In 2019, Paul was a featured speaker at the Transcontinental Railroad 150th Anniversary Symposium. Paul is the author of several bridge design and civil engineering history papers. He is also an active public speaker having presented over 300 lectures and seminars at over 80 engineering schools throughout the United States. Additionally, he has presented nearly a hundred other speeches at professional and public venues. Renowned for his unique story telling ability and inspirational messages, he has served as the keynote speaker to a wide variety of audiences across the United States. Paul was the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award for 2013. In 2015 Paul received ASCE’s G. Brooks Earnest Technical Lecture Award. In 2016 Paul was awarded the American Society of Engineering Societies’ Norm Augustine Award. In 2016 Paul was elected as a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2017, Paul was awarded the ASCE Construction Institute’s Roebling Award for outstanding contribution to the advancement of construction engineering. Finally, in 2018 Paul was inducted into the Iowa State University Construction Engineering Hall of Fame.

Company: ASCE

 

Format: In person

 

Presenter: Sanjay Tewari

 

Title: Leading Meetings

 

Description:  This seminar series will be hosted by Dr. Sanjay Tewari. In this series “Nuts and Bolts of Running a Student Chapter” will be covered. Submitting Annual Reports and “Professional Skills You Need to Succeed” will be covered and how Networking that Works plays a role in it.

 

Presenter Bio: Dr. Sanjay Tewari is teaches and mentors students at Missouri University of Science & Technology as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering. He joined Missouri S&T in 2018. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Surat, India, M. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Texas A&M University.

 

Dr. Tewari has been awarded with multiple teaching awards and honors. He is involved with student-related activities of various professional organizations such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and American Chemical Society (ACS). In addition, Dr. Tewari has a strong interest in engineering education-related activities. He enjoys teaching various core classes and mentoring students and student engineering societies as a faculty advisor. He is active in pedagogical and technical research. Most of Dr. Tewari’s teaching and research efforts are focused on environmental engineering and foundational civil engineering areas. Specifically, his focus is on drinking water quality and issues related to the treatment of wastewater. His recent efforts have been focused on a variety of separation processes such as physical, chemical, biological, and electrochemical. However, currently, he is more focused on capacitive deionization, electrokinetic, and electrocoagulation for improving water quality and better treatment of wastewater from industrial as well as municipal sources. In addition, his research focuses on sustainability and resiliency of various systems around us. Recently funded projects have been in the area of pollution prevention and sustainability, application of Geographic Information System to environmental management, and resiliency of infrastructure. Other than academics, Dr. Tewari is active in working for AARC Consultants and solve problems and challenges in the field of Risk and Resilience related to infrastructure around us.

Company: Nucor

 

Format: In person

 

Presenter(s): Eric Fossum, Kyle Lacanlale, Tim Broadwell, Adrienne Kusek, Zach Kirchhoff, and Mitch Stipek

 

Title: Meet n’ Greet with Nucor

 

Description: Come learn about Nucor Fabricated Products and hang out with some of our engineers. This will be a great opportunity to learn about different aspects of the company like our culture, the engineering challenges we face, career growth opportunities or anything you want to know about Nucor!

 

Presenter Bio: Eric Fossum, P.E., Kyle Lacanlale, Tim Broadwell, P.E., Adrienne, Zach and Mitch Stipek, P.E. have all been engineers at Nucor for varying lengths of time and have varying experience designing steel buildings and steel building components and leading other engineers. They look forward to sharing their experiences with you.

Company: ASCE

 

Format: In person

 

Presenter: Sanjay Tewari

 

Title: Leading Groups

 

Description:  This seminar series will be hosted by Dr. Sanjay Tewari. In this series “Nuts and Bolts of Running a Student Chapter” will be covered. Planning Activities and “Professional Skills You Need to Succeed” will be covered and how Communicating Effectively plays a role in it.

 

Presenter Bio: Dr. Sanjay Tewari is teaches and mentors students at Missouri University of Science & Technology as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering. He joined Missouri S&T in 2018. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Surat, India, M. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Texas A&M University.

 

Dr. Tewari has been awarded with multiple teaching awards and honors. He is involved with student-related activities of various professional organizations such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and American Chemical Society (ACS). In addition, Dr. Tewari has a strong interest in engineering education-related activities. He enjoys teaching various core classes and mentoring students and student engineering societies as a faculty advisor. He is active in pedagogical and technical research. Most of Dr. Tewari’s teaching and research efforts are focused on environmental engineering and foundational civil engineering areas. Specifically, his focus is on drinking water quality and issues related to the treatment of wastewater. His recent efforts have been focused on a variety of separation processes such as physical, chemical, biological, and electrochemical. However, currently, he is more focused on capacitive deionization, electrokinetic, and electrocoagulation for improving water quality and better treatment of wastewater from industrial as well as municipal sources. In addition, his research focuses on sustainability and resiliency of various systems around us. Recently funded projects have been in the area of pollution prevention and sustainability, application of Geographic Information System to environmental management, and resiliency of infrastructure. Other than academics, Dr. Tewari is active in working for AARC Consultants and solve problems and challenges in the field of Risk and Resilience related to infrastructure around us.

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