Structural Solutions: The Power of Positive Thinking Lasts a Lifetime
Although my daughters have almost finished college, it’s not (yet) difficult to remember when they were young. I was in scouting most of my young life—from Cub Scouts to Webelos to Boy Scouts, until I “aged out” at 18—and having two daughters didn’t allow me to go back into the Boy Scout track. Girl Scouts wasn’t really an option, because I wanted to be personally involved in their activities. Fortunately, we discovered “Indian Guides” within the local YMCA. It wasn’t scouting in the sense I gr...
Infrastructure Outlook: From the Video Vault: Erosion Control
Informed Infrastructure spoke with Matthew Welch, technical manager with Profile Products, at the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) Environmental Connection 2016 event. This column features highlights from the discussion, and a video recording of the full interview can be viewed at informedinfrastructure.com/28058/profile-soil-solutions-software-welch. The Five Fundamentals “Profile Soil Solutions Software (PS3) is the vessel in which we incorporate our five fundamentals to succ...
Executive Corner: “I Know that E-mail’s Here Somewhere”
Understanding professional liability and managing risk is an important aspect of all A/E projects. For this installment of “Executive Corner,” Russ Ryan, principal at Rusk O’Brien Gido + Partners (e-mail: rryan@rog-partners.com), interviews Ian Howell, CEO of Newforma, a project information management (PIM) software company transforming building and infrastructure project delivery (e-mail: ihowell@newforma.com). Ryan: The design and construction industry continues to grow. As architecture...
Final Thoughts: The Tools Are Nothing Without the Engineer
In the September/October 2016 issue of Informed Infrastructure, I described showing up for my first day of work back in the early 1970s with my slide rule, mechanical pencil and scales. If I were to start working today, fresh out of college, I wouldn’t have any of these. I would bring my smartphone and expect an extremely fast computer to be provided. In most cases, this is the way of the engineering world: find my cube, log in, create a password and start working. If only it were that easy …...
From the Editor: Celebrating the Work We Do
Timing is everything, and I couldn’t have timed my joining Informed Infrastructure any better. The AEC industry continues to grow at a rapid rate, and the key technologies such as BIM, reality capture and even virtual and augmented reality are finally growing in adoption, which is going to lead to all of us working smarter, better and faster. And I wouldn’t be doing my new job if I didn’t note that this multi-platform media company I recently joined seems like it’s poised to take off in major w...
Engineer Spotlight: Differentiate Your Business to Achieve Success
As a brief personal background, I created RAM International back in 1998, which was one of the first companies to incorporate an entire building model into one dataset with a Windows interface, setting the stage for a lot of the AEC technology that exists today. After I sold RAM to Bentley Systems in 2005, I went into mergers and acquisitions at Bentley, and I did about 10 of those in structural, architectural, electrical and other software technologies. I later led a global sales team for thre...
Structural Solutions: Proper Communication - Engineers Need It Just Like Everyone Else
I’m sure there are many readers of this column who can remember when the telephone was the only substitute for an in-person meeting—it wasn’t that long ago. Today, we have myriad ways to communicate through the internet: talking to multiple people at once via conference calling and video conferencing, talking and watching via screen-sharing apps, and writing via e-mail. And where would we be without chatting, blogging, texting and messaging? One thing that hasn’t changed is the need to communic...
Infrastructure Outlook: Liberate Data for Integrated Infrastructure Development
The world is changing around us, with disruptive and efficiency-enabling technology supporting a whole new level of communication, collaboration and productivity. We have a lot more data, tools and technological options in all aspects of our business, including data acquisition, analysis, storage, visualization and sharing. This creates new realities, challenges and opportunities, and infrastructure projects are no exception. Lack of collaboration among the various stages of infrastructure proj...
Final Thoughts: The Joy of Witnessing Engineering’s Evolution
I consider myself lucky to have begun my career when I did, seeing firsthand so many dramatic changes in engineering. Let’s take a quick look back at how different things were in 1971, when I started, and how the work environment has changed during the 45 years I have been working. Fresh out of Valparaiso University, I showed up at work with the tools of the trade: mechanical pencils, triangles, scales (engineering and architectural) and, of course, my slide rule. I was assigned a work area con...
Executive Corner: Does the Valuation of Your Company’s Stock Reflect ALL its Risk?
Whether a business valuation is done for purposes of transferring ownership internally from one employee to another, or for meeting the regulatory requirements of sponsoring an employee stock-ownership plan, the risk associated with such an investment is a critical element in determining its value. An appraiser often looks at risk from a business operating point of view. When valuing a closely held firm operating in the A/E industry, we look for risk in areas such as key personnel, customer co...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
