As Nease’s Engineering Design and Development students work through their ACE Mentor competition projects in class, they are bringing in professionals from a range of fields in, or related to, the Engineering industry to help open the students’ eyes to all that a major engineering project encompasses. On January 24th, landscape designer Cindy Burns, owner of Cynthia Burns Landscape Design, walked the students through the considerations they need to make in their designs regarding elevations, plant selection, codes, lighting, and budget. She also helped them find websites that will assist them in selecting the correct plants to use in projects being built in our area.
On January 31st, they were joined by Waterfront Structural Engineer Evan Boyce, who has a background in both Civil and Structural engineering. He shared insight into what a structural engineer does, discussed the pros and cons of differing building materials, expanded on the projects that a waterfront engineer designs, and shared some local projects he has worked on.
Both guests also took time to answer students questions about their projects. In the ACE program, students can select from three projects: a highway interchange design, shoreline design, or an Olympic stadium design. Our students will be working on these projects through April, in hopes of presenting the best projects in front of a panel of judges at the ACE regional competition on April 30th.
