It is my pleasure to inform the SEAoA membership of this year’s SEAoA Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards recipients.  Details regarding the award level, commemorative plaques, and other information are in the attached Announcement.

2020 SEAoA Excellence in Engineering Awards

SEAOA thanks the firms that submitted entries this year.  As noted by one of the judges there were a number of “really solid” entries this year.  This is evidenced by the fact that nine entries were submitted and all nine received an award.  Please be advised that although there were six Excellence awards, none received an excellence recommendation from all the judges which is the criteria for SEAoA to pay the entry fee for the upcoming NCSEA 2020 Awards program.

Please contact me if you have any questions. 

with high regards / sal 

Sal Caccavale; SEAoA Awards Program Chair

For a complete list of all SEAoA Excellence in Engineering Awards winners, see the Awards Committee page: http://seaoa.org/awards/

As a follow up to the previous post regarding the cancellation of the 2020 SEAoA Convention due to COVID-19, the SEAoA Board has rescheduled the convention to the summer of 2021.  The official dates for the 2021 SEAoA Convention are May 13th-May 15th.  The Convention will be held at the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, Arizona.  

As the speaker schedule is finalized for 2021, details and registration will be announced in the coming weeks.  We look forward to a great Convention and Conference next summer and we wish healthy and safety to all our membership and sponsors.

SEAoA Board

Over the course of the past few weeks, the SEAoA Convention Planning Committee has been monitoring the status of the COVID-19 virus and determining our plan of action in terms of the 2020 SEAoA Convention planned for May.  Due to recent guidelines and orders from the government, the SEAoA Board has decided to postpone the Convention until next year, June 2021.  We will be in touch with those members, speakers and vendors that have already registered to discuss options.

We appreciate your continued support and involvement in SEAoA and we look forward to future networking opportunities in the coming months.  We hope for healthy and safety for all our membership.

Respectfully,

SEAoA State Board

L’EGGO MY EGGO

By: Sarah Kay Twine

The Structural Engineers Association of Arizona (SEAoA) hosted their 2^nd Annual Egg-Drop Competition and Fundraiser on Friday, January 31^st, 2020 at the University of Arizona. The competition is dual-purposed: (1) to raise money for SEAoA's Annual Student Scholarship given to deserving University of Arizona students interested in structural engineering, and (2) to provide a networking opportunity for professionals and students in the fields of engineering, architecture, and construction. The evening was a fun-filled 'egg'-citing way for teams to take on the great challenge of creating an apparatus to protect a raw chicken egg from cracking when dropped from the second landing (over 35 feet high) of the Civil Engineering courtyard staircase. 

Each team, consisting of two professionals and one or two students, was given a bag of the same random materials and had only twenty minutes to hatch an idea and create a device to protect their egg. The competition is intended to parallel that of the structural engineering world, to protect the public (the egg) and to provide an economical (light weight) design.

Some teams designed a parachute to slow the fall while others chose materials to absorb the impact. A few decided to combine both concepts. As the deadline approached, some teams were scrambling to finish while others patiently waited to show off their design. All teams had great 'egg'-spectations for their personal creations. 

After the twenty minutes were up, each device was weighed before it was dropped. The winner would be the lightest device to sustain the drop resulting in an unbroken egg. Audible "oooohhhs" and "aaahhhhhs" followed with applause filled the courtyard after each successive team had "l'eggo their eggo" from the stair landing. A SEAoA judge meticulously determined whether each egg was un-cracked, cracked (no leaking), or completely obliterated. After 13 dropped eggs, 6 eggs were un-cracked, 4 were cracked, and 3 had been annihilated. Team 5 crushed the competition with an apparatus weighing 79 grams (31 grams less than the previous year’s winner). The winners included two University of Arizona civil engineering students: Adam Bishop and Sergio Corona, and two Professionals from M3 Engineering and Technology Corp.: Allan Ortega and Austin Urton. The winners each received a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

In addition to all of the fun and networking, there were some awesome raffle prizes donated by our sponsors. The event was a huge success, and approximately $1150 was raised for the students! SEAoA would like to extend a special thank you to the University of Arizona ASCE Executive Team, and Jessica Carson, S.E., from Martin, White & Griffis, for creating this event last year and lending a hand this year. SEAoA would also like to thank all of the 2020 sponsors:

Event Sponsors:

Coreslab Structures (ARIZ), Inc.

DPR Construction

HDR

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

Restruction Corporation

Structural Concepts, Inc.

Swaim Associates, Ltd.

Local Raffle Sponsors:

Arizona Diamondbacks

Brother John's Beer, Bourbon & BBQ

Roadhouse Cinemas

Golf N' Stuff

Culinary Dropout

Early Registration is now open for the 2020 SEAoA Convention and Conference held at the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, Arizona!

Like last year, registration will include the Thursday morning sessions for a total of 13.25 PDH credits! 

Register now to take advantage of Early Registration rates.  More information on topics, schedule and rates can be found at the registration link: 

http://www.seaoa.org/event-3759288

Vendor Registration is now open for the 2020 SEAoA Convention and Conference in Tucson, AZ from May 28th-30th. Please click on the link below for more information and registration: 

http://www.seaoa.org/event-3710470

As a silver sponsor of the Greater Phoenix Area Architecture Construction Engineering (ACE) Mentor Program, the SEAoA Central Chapter uses a portion of membership dues to support the program that mentors and encourages high school students in the field of ACE. See the flyer below for more information on this great program!

The January-March issue of the Structural Engineers Association of Arizona Newsletter is now available to view! January 2020 Newsletter.pdf

Please read to keep up to date on all the current happenings with the SEAoA, articles from SEAoA Board Members and information pertaining to the structural engineering industry.

If you have any articles, ideas, or comments for future newsletters, please send them to info@seaoa.org. 

The SEAoA Board wants to recognize and congratulate two of our SEAoA Young Members, Anthony Wulfers and Victoria Flys, who received scholarships to attend the NCSEA Summit this year in Anaheim. There were a lot of scholarship applicants this year so this is a great achievement for these two Arizona young members. Below is a link to the NCSEA website describing the scholarship. 

http://www.ncsea.com/awards/ymawards/

Victoria and Anthony's bios are highlighted below:

Victoria Flys is a structural EIT at Meyer Borgman Johnson and received her B.S.E and M.S.E in Civil (Structural) Engineering from Arizona State University. She is an active member of SEAoA's Younger Member Group, serving previously as University Outreach/Student Liaison chair. She is also on the NCSEA Steering Committee for the Timber Strong Design Build Competition at the 2019 NCSEA Summit and is a volunteer with the ACE Mentor Program in Phoenix.

Anthony Wulfers been a structural engineer for Caruso Turley Scott Structural Engineers for 7 years.  While there, he has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from single story commercial like OHSO in downtown Gilbert up to an 11 story tower for Carvana in Las Vegas.  Anthony graduated from Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, MO with a MS in 2012 and BS in 2010.  He has attended a few of the events put on by the young member group and was a participant on the trivia team that won our regional two years ago.

Congratulations Anthony and Victoria and enjoy the NCSEA Summit!

We are pleased to announce that Early Registration for attendees is now open for our 53rd Anniversary SEAoA Convention and Conference. These Early Registration rates will expire on Monday April 30th. 

This year, the Thursday morning sessions are also included in your registration for a total of 13.25 PDH credits offered for the 2019 Convention.

Click Here to Register!