Richard Matson, PE, Team Leader, Bridge & Tunnel Inspections, AECOM
Spring is in the air and Boston has emerged from the coldest winter in over 20 years. While the winter months have been disruptive to some events, BSCES has been hard at work scheduling many events over the Spring months and we are preparing more for the summer and fall months. We continue to advocate our student involvement with BSCES and, in April, the MIT ASCE student chapter hosted our monthly executive committee meeting on campus and the Northeastern ASCE student chapter hosted our YMG monthly meeting. Having some of our meetings at college campuses is a great way to network with students and to have more meaningful and engaging one-on-one conversations. In addition, BSCES continues to support our ASCE student chapters by awarding grants to several student chapters.
Last month, BSCES awarded the first ever YMG Student Scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each! Congratulations to Otniel Castanos Marte, a Merrimack College civil engineering sophomore and to Anthony Koh, an MIT civil & environmental engineering sophomore, on being the recipients of these scholarships. The executive committee reviewed the final candidates for the Construction Institute Boston Chapter’s Francis Keville Scholarship and the DE&I Committee reviewed the candidates for the 2026 Professor Peter S. Eagleson Memorial Scholarship. The Francis Keville Scholarship is for one award in the amount of $10,000 and the Professor Peter S. Eagleson Memorial Scholarship is for one award with a total value of $20,000. The recipients of the Keville Scholarship and Eagleson Scholarship will to be selected in May. In addition, the 2026 Leo Casagrande Memorial Scholarship is live and accepting applications! This is for one award with a total value of $2,000. Click here to learn more and apply. The deadline to apply for this scholarship is May 15, 2026.
In March and April BSCES put on a variety of events ranging from panel discussions, Junior and Senior Tech Talks, and technical site tours to hosting signature events like the Freeman Lecture and Student Night as well as a Red Sox outing and volunteering at a river cleanup. In addition, our Continuing Education Committee hosted the FHWA-NHI-130125 Tunnel Safety Inspection Refresher in Worcester on April 14-16, 2026.
I personally attended the BSCES Student Night event (hosted by the YMG) at HNTB’s Boston office and we had a great turnout of younger members and student members at the event. The format of this event encouraged collaborating in groups, but also the keynote speaker, Marsia Geldert-Murphey, P.E., F. ASCE, ASCE 2024 President, was in-person and she gave an inspiring story of her career journey in ASCE. Thank you to Marsia for traveling to Boston to meeting with our younger members, students, and some of our executive leadership in attendance at this event.
I also attended the 2026 John R. Freeman Lecture (hosted by the Freeman Committee and EWRI) at Northeastern University where the keynote speaker, Grey Nearing, PhD, Google Research, presented on AI for Global Flood Forecasting: From Research to Operations and the Future of Early Warnings for All. Dr. Nearing leads several of Google Research’s efforts to engage with global governance organizations in building public-private partnerships to support initiatives such as the UN’s Early Warnings for All (EW4A). AI continues to be a hot topic in todays world and this presentation was a great way to show some of the capabilities AI can do. Thank you to Dr. Nearing for traveling from Switzerland to present at our 101st Freeman Lecture!
It is with great pride that I recognize Dr. Brendan Harley as an ASCE distinguished member. Karen Kelley, PE had the honor to bestow the medal for the 2025 ASCE Distinguish Member Award to Dr. Brendan Harley. This election is the highest honor available to a civil engineer. One of Dr. Harley’s signature projects that he worked on was the Marina Barrage project in Singapore for CDM Smith. This video highlights the project: How Singapore Built its Biggest Reservoir.
A yearly tradition for our student members is to compete at the annual ASCE/AISC Northeast Regional Student Symposium (i.e. the steel bridge competition and concrete canoe competition). This year, the symposium was hosted by Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. The steel bridge competition had 16 schools compete (8 from Massachusetts) and the concrete canoe competition has 12 schools compete (5 from Massachusetts). Overall, there was great competition at both events. I personally attended the steel bridge competition where I judged the loading area. This was the first time in many years where 10/16 teams had passed through the construction & loading. I want to congratulate the top five teams on finishing the steel bridge as follows: 1st: Université Laval (Quebec, CA), 2nd: École de Tecnologie Supérieure (Montreal, CA), 3rd: Northeastern University, 4th: Merrimack College, 5th: Western New England University. I wish I could be in two places at once as the concrete canoe competition was held over the same weekend. Congratulations to the top five teams on finishing the concrete canoe competition as follows: 1st: École de Tecnologie Supérieure (Montreal, CA), 2nd: Université Laval (Quebec, CA), 3rd: Worcester Polytechnical Institute, 4th: Northeastern University, 5th: University of New Haven University. Amazing job by our Canadian counterparts for taking the top 2 spots at both events and our Massachusetts schools for a strong showing at both events.
BSCES has several upcoming events. For May, we have a webinar: Integrating Public Health into Climate Adaptation and Resilience Projects on May 19, sponsored by EWRI Boston Chapter. On May 28, we will participate in Engineers & Land Surveyors Day at the State House. This is a great opportunity for our members to advocate to our State Representatives and State Senators the importance of engineering.
For June, we have several events planned with maybe one or two more events to wrap up our FY26. On June 3 there will be a social event, Structural Jeopardy, hosted by SEI Boston Chapter and YMG at the Bell in Hand Tavern in Boston. Also, on June 3 there is a webinar: Boston Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study Update: A USACE-City of Boston Partnership, sponsored by COPRI Boston Chapter. June 9-11 the Continuing Education Committee will be hosting the FHWA-NHI-130078 Bridge Inspection Techniques for Nonredundant Steel Tension Members in Worcester. This training is capped at 30 and likely will sell out. So sign up now!
The 177th BSCES Annual Awards at the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge will be June 11. Registration is live, click here. Our keynote speaker is Luciana Burdi, Chief Infrastructure Officer at Massachusetts Port Authority. I hope to see many of you at this year’s annual awards dinner as this is truly one of my favorite events to attend every year.