Katie Swanson, PE, Project Manager – Water Resources Engineer, CDM Smith
October was an exciting month for BSCES! We had a full slate of technical seminars with A Roundtable on Embodied Carbon in Design and Construction hosted by the Committee on Sustainability, the 2025 Arthur Casagrande Lecture: Seismic Slope Stability hosted by the Geo-Institute, Guided Tour of the Charles River Dam hosted by the Construction Institute, and the NHI Safety Inspection of In-Services Bridges two-week training course put on by the BSCES Continuing Education Committee. On top of all of that, the Younger Member Group hosted a volunteer event supporting the Greater Boston Food Bank and co-hosted a Halloween Social and Trivia night with SEAMASS. Don’t miss out on everything we have planned for the next few months – check out the BSCES events calendar for more.
In addition to our technical and social events, BSCES has several exciting opportunities geared towards supporting students in our community. All students currently enrolled at a Massachusetts college or university are encouraged to apply for the YMG Student Scholarship, in which not one but two awards in the amount of $5,000 are being offered to civil engineering students. Please help me in getting the word out about this exciting opportunity if you are not currently a student yourself, and if you are one, please apply! The deadline for applications is January 9, 2026.
We are also currently offering Student Chapter Grants to our local ASCE student groups. Students who attended the November 5 Student Caucus hosted by YMG got a head start by brainstorming ideas with fellow students, industry professionals, and BSCES Executive Committee members, and pitched their ideas for questions and input. I’m excited to see how these ideas develop, which are due to the Executive Committee on December 3, 2025. Email [email protected] with questions or for more information.
Lastly, all BSCES members are encouraged to support our K-12 outreach programs through the 2025-2026 STEM Sponsorship Drive! You can be a STEM Friend, or your organization can sign up to be a STEM Outreach Program Sponsor. This drive helps support the activities of the Public Awareness & Outreach committee, and most notably supports the New England Regional Future City Competition and Model Bridge Contest. The Model Bridge contest has been running for an impressive three decades and has inspired many current local engineers and architects (chances are high that either you are someone who was involved with this or you know someone who was as a K-12 student). This is an integral way to ensure that we have a steady pipeline of future engineers in our community. Both organizations and individual contributors are encouraged to support this great cause.