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South Carolina Engineering Conference & Tradeshow
The registration for the conference opened early Thursday morning and ACEC-SC, ASCE-SC, and SCSPE each conducted board meetings. The Tradeshow opened at noon, and continuing education seminars started at 1:00 PM. Thursday’s seminars started with a Panel Discussion with the Engineers Registration Board, followed by an interesting seminar on the I-35 Bridge Collapse. Thursday’s classes ended with a class on “Offshore Wind Development in South Carolina”. Conference attendees were then treated to a meet and greet reception at the tradeshow, followed by a charming dinner cruise on the Spirit of Charleston. The conference and tradeshow started at 7:30 AM on Friday, with the SCSPE annual meeting and installation of officers. Friday is a big day at the conference as there are five concurrent tracks (civil, general, geotechnical, management, and structural), that can be followed so every engineer has something they enjoy learning about. With 5 sessions going all morning and afternoon, attendees were able to earn up to 6 PDH. That includes a PDH from the Keynote address “Wind Turbine Drive Train Testing Facility at Clemson University Restoration Institute, at lunch by Nicholas C. Rigas, PhD., Director of Renewable Energy, CURI. Attendees enjoyed Charleston on their own Friday night.
Saturday morning began with the ACEC-SC Annual Meeting and installation of officers. Saturday two tracks were offered to attendees. Bob Davidson & George McCall lead 3 hour session on “Smoke Control Systems Reliability and Fire Resistant Construction Passive Resistances.” Others chose between a panel discussion on Qualification Based Selection, SCDOT Challenges and Initiatives, and Building Share Holder Value. Saturday wrapped up a lunch so golfers could enjoy the SCSPE Educational Foundation Golf Outing at Patriots Point Links on Charleston Harbor. The 2010 SC Engineering Conference held its annual Keynote Address and Awards Banquet Saturday evening. Attendees enjoyed a delicious steak dinner while being educated on the who, what, when, and where of Boeing coming to Charleston. After the Keynote address, awards were given out and the conference wrapped up. Make sure you mark your calendars for next year’s conference in Hilton Head. ACEC-SC, SCSPE, & ASCE-SC would like to thank the following companies for sponsoring or exhibiting at the 2010 Engineering Conference and Trade Show. Click here to see the list of sponsors and exhibitors<< 2010 SC Engineering Conference Attendees Learn About Boeing in SC As most are aware, Boeing has come to South Carolina and created quite a buzz. Jobs, economic development, engineering work are all positive aspects of Boeing coming to South Carolina. Boeing is the leading aerospace company in the world. It is headquarter in Chicago, and employs over 158,000 people across the United States. This number is only going to rise. Mr. Schuler opened his remarks with a video of the new “Dreamliner” Boeing unveiled earlier this year. The Dreamliner is a plane that is going to revolutionize air travel, and Charleston, SC is at the heart of this revolution. Made of predominately composite materials, which differs from the aluminum that planes are made of now, the Dreamliner will be able to seat more people, go farther without fueling, and add to the general comfort of passengers. Making these huge planes is an enormous project. Charleston was chosen for the new Dreamliner assembly facility. Many of the Dreamliner’s parts are manufactured all over the world and then flown or shipped to Charleston for final assembly. With safety and the environment being a part of the plan for making these jetliners, the assembly process is important. To insure the plane’s assembly is perfect, Boeing will also be providing education for its employees. Through a partnership with Trident Technical College, Boeing will be teaching vast numbers of people to work at the Boeing facility in Charleston. The facility itself has been a huge project, and continues to be. Many engineering firms are already working with Boeing. They are currently working on a project to relocate Aviation Avenue. Mr. Schuler was excited to talk about South Carolina and Boeing growing what has already started as a great relationship. He could not predict exactly how many jobs Boeing would be providing, but suggested that it will benefit the local economy. He closed the keynote address with an exciting video of the facility being built and the first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. ACEC-SC Installs the 2010-2011 Officers and Directors
ACEC-SC 2010-2011 officers are President, Mr. James O’Connor, PE, Collins Engineering, Inc., Charleston; Vice President, Mr. Matthew Silveston, PE, WPC, A Terracon Co., Charleston, and Secretary/Treasurer, Mr. Jerry Carter, PE, Vaughn & Melton, Spartanburg. ACEC-SC Board of Directors are Mr. Eric Burke, PE, Wilbur Smith Associates, Columbia; Mr. Joe Greenburg, PE, Design South Professionals, Inc., Anderson; Mr. Tom Jordan, PE, Davis & Floyd, Inc., Greenwood; Mr. Jim Keistler, PE, Keistler Engineering Co., Inc., Rock Hill, Mr. Robert Thomas Haselden, Jr., PE, BP Barber, Columbia and Mr. Don Freeman, PE, THE LPA GROUP INC, Columbia. Mr. Peter Strub, PE, TranSystems, Inc., Greenville, serves as the organizations National Director to the American Council of Engineering Companies. Mr. Larry Hargrove, PE, Life Cycle Engineering, Inc., Charleston completes his term on the board as Immediate Past President. The ACEC-SC officers and directors are responsible for the organization’s leadership and work to support the consulting engineering firms who are members. ACEC-SC’s mission statement is “to promote and protect the business interests and professional standards of consulting engineering in the state of South Carolina and to improve member firms’ ability to profitably provide quality services to their clients.” ACEC-SC Awards the Service to the Profession Award to Lott and Parrish
Mr. R. Glen Lott, and Arthur E. (Ed) Parrish, PE, founders of THE LPA GROUP INC received the American Council of Engineering Companies of South Carolina Service to Profession award for the numerous contributions they and their company have made to the consulting engineering industry.
Mr. Lott began his engineering career in 1960 with Wilbur Smith Associates where he progressed in his career to Director of the company’s Australian operations in Brisbane, Australia. In 1981 Mr. Lott joined Mr. Parrish to form THE LPA GROUP INC, where has served as President, Chairman and CEO. Mr. Parrish began his engineering career after graduating in civil engineering from North Carolina State University in 1974 as a project engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration. From the FAA, he joined Wilbur Smith Associates as a project engineer where he remained until joining Mr. Lott to form THE LPA GROUP INC in 1981. Mr. Parrish currently serves as President of the company. Mr. Larry Hargrove, President of the American Council of Engineering and Surveying Companies of South Carolina, said, “Both Mr. Lott and Mr. Parrish have been active in numerous engineering, transportation and university engineering organizations throughout their careers giving their support and expertise to improve the profession.” The company these men formed began as a transportation engineering firm but has developed into a multidisciplinary engineering/architectural consulting firm providing transportation engineering, planning, environmental, architectural, design-build, program management and construction engineering inspection services to federal, state and local government agencies throughout the United States and abroad. Clemson Student Receives National ACEC-CASE Scholarship Mr. Deery is pursuing a Master of Science in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in structural engineering from Clemson University where he achieved a 4.0 GPA in his undergraduate in civil engineering at Clemson. Mr. Derry has been an intern for HNTB Corp. in Kansas City, MO, and Palmer Engineering in Winchester, KY. Along with his work experience, he won the Herbert W. Busching Outstanding Senior Award in 2009 at Clemson.
The Council of American StructuralEngineers (CASE) is a national association of structural engineering firms. This organization established a scholarship program to provide financial aid to students who intend to pursue an advanced degree with an emphasis in structural engineering. Applicants’ evaluations are weighted equally on scholastic ability, work experience, outside activities and personal recommendations. Applicants are reviewed and ranked by practicing engineers. ACEC-SC is proud to have sponsored Mr. Derry at the national level and are pleased he represented South Carolina, Clemson University and himself in his competition for the $5,000 scholarship. ACEC-SC gives Scholarship to a Deserving Student
“With a record number of applicants this year, choosing the most worthy student was a real task,” said Mike Horton, PE, of Davis & Floyd, scholarship chair. The scholarship committee received 33 applications this year. 16 of these applicants had a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Several of these applicants maintain a 4.0. Rae Cauthen, of Aiken, SC, a rising senior in Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University was judged as the highest scoring candidate. Mr. Cauthen is involved with the student organization Pi Tau Sigma, the Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi, Engineering honor Society, and ASME. Mr. Cauthen will be Graduating with a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in May 2011. “This is a great honor for both ACEC-SC and Mr. Cauthen,” said Mr. Horton. With only two scholarships given per year, the competition is tough. Candidates were evaluated based upon GPA, work experience, professional reference(s), extracurricular college activities, and an essay written. Horton added, “Mr. Cauthen is an exemplary student, and very deserving of this award.” Lobbyist Report - Joe Jones Three major pieces of legislation died at the end of the Legislative Session – removing the SC State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors from the SC Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation as a pilot program; strengthening qualification based selection for surveyors and engineers in the public sector and tort reform failed to pass. These bills must be reintroduced again next year. Another issue which came up at the end of the session is one of the Governor’s vetoes to the State Budget that affects surveyors and engineers – funding for the State Budget and Control Board. Three programs under B&CB that may be cut were the state geodetic survey, the State Engineer’s Office and the block grant program for small cities and towns for water and wastewater plants. I emailed every member of the House of Representatives and the SC Senate asking them to override the Governor’s veto on the B&CB funding, especially the three issues important to surveyors and engineers. Further, I wrote each Representative and Senator with the same message and had the letters delivered to their legislative offices June 15. I received verbal or email confirmation from several legislators saying they supported our position and would vote to override the vetoes, but some said they did not know where the House leadership might go. They were expecting some vetoes to be sustained and did not know if the B&CB funding was included. * Wednesday, June 16, the SC House of Representatives sustained Governor Sandford’s veto of $25 Million, the revenue to the State Budget and Control Board. A reliable source told me the $25 Million cut to the Budget and Control Board does not mean the State Engineer’s Office, the Geodetic Survey or the grants to small towns and cities for water and wastewater will necessarily be dropped. The effect of the cut is that Frank Fusco, head of the Budget and Control Board, will have to find ways to keep necessary programs with less money; therefore, programs may diminished and jobs lost. However, state laws have not been repealed; funding has been reduced. Next year has new challenges and opportunities. There will be a new governor, a new lieutenant governor, new House members and new cabinet appointees. Ms. Adrianne Youmans, in all likelihood, will not remain as director of the SC Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation. Secretary Mr. Buck Limehouse may be replaced at the SC Department of Transportation and other cabinet appointees may change. Conditions at LLR may improve and passage of the pilot program removing the SC State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors may be difficult again. For the qualification based selection legislation to pass, engineers and surveyors must not only talk and convince legislators of the need for this change but also, they must reach out to county and municipal elected officials and administrators and explain the value of qualification based procurement at these political subdivisions. Tort reform is never an easy task. We were so close this year, but we were beat by the clock and trial lawyer opposition. The trial lawyers in the Senate drug debate on such issues as texting while driving and abortion and ran out the clock prohibiting debate on tort reform. We feel the House of Representatives’ leadership remains strong and wants to see tort reform pass. However, the dynamics of the Senate makes it a real challenge with a number of senior anti-tort reform senators able to manipulate the system and keep tort reform at bay. Although tort reform is important to all in business, the construction industry which includes engineers and surveyors are especially interested in the refinements to the 8-year statute of repose which was in the tort reform bill that died June 3, the close of the regular legislative session. I look forward to lobbying for you next session. I appreciate the grassroots support you gave by responding to my requests for contacts to legislators. STV/Ralph Whitehead Associates is pleased to announce the following management-level promotions: Richard Capps, PE will now serve as Vice-President - Regional Manager for STV’s Southeast Region, responsible for managing the operations of the firm’s Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) groups in 9 southern states plus the District of Columbia and Texas. Dan Moses, PE has been appointed as the Business Unit Manager for STV’s South Carolina and Georgia T&I Group, responsible for managing the firm’s three offices in the area. STV/Ralph Whitehead Associates is a 180-person planning, engineering and construction management group, focusing on transportation projects (roadways, railways, bridges and transit) with ancillary services offered for stormwater management, environmental, traffic, geotechnical, utility and contractor clients. STV/Ralph Whitehead Associates has offices in Life Cycle Engineering Awarded $15.3 M Contract by U.S. Navy Staff Report
The American Council of Engineering of South Carolina is a member of organization of the ACEC-SC Reports is published for members firms and friends by
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"What we do is all around you."
We would like to thank our sponsors and exhibitors: Silver Sponsor Bronze Sponsors
Mid-Morning Break Sponsor Golf Lunch Sponsor Exhibitors
August 5 August 10 October 7 October 10 October 19–22 October 27 October 29 & 30 November 4 November - TBA November 19 December 2 December 10 December 15 December 17 January 6 January 7 January 25 February 3 February 8 February 11 February 20-26 February 23 March 17-21 April - TBA April - TBA April 8 & 9 May 5 May - TBA May 18 June 1 June 9-12 June 9 June 11
We would like to thank those that have committed to participate in this year's annual meeting as an exhibitor or sponsor. Bronze Trade Show Exhibitors
ACEC-SC would like to thank our members for your continued support. For membership information contact Ginger Booker at ginger@jma-associations.com. The mission of ACEC-SC is to promote and protect the business interests and professional standards of engineers in the state of South Carolina; and to improve member firms' ability to profitably provide quality services to their clients. ACEC-SC is an Organization of more than 80 Engineering firms employing more than 4,000 individuals. Membership Information
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