Latest / You've Got Options / Who Run The World? Civil Engineers
Transcript
- Clare: Welcome back everyone to another episode. Today we are going to be diving into civil engineering. We have two guests on today's episode. know the drill before we get into our guests, let's cover some basics about the major to get a sense of what to expect. First and foremost, you will take a lot of the same engineering foundations as many other majors within the college. This includes calculus one through linear algebra and differential equations, chemistry, physics one and two, computing, engineering projects, so on and so forth. Some specializations available within the degree are in areas construction engineering and management, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural and structural mechanics, and water resources engineering. Some common job titles for students with a civil engineering degree are civil engineer, project engineer, and field engineer. Some common companies that CU graduates have gone on to work at are companies like M.A. Mortensen, Merrick <unk> Company, and MWH Global. to provide some more concrete examples, I found this which describes what is possible within the civil engineering field. And I quote, you could help build a school that could withstand an earthquake, a road system that puts an end to chronic traffic jams, or a sports stadium that offers everyone a great view. You could also work on geotechnical field design projects and evaluate the soils, groundwater, and environmental conditions that impact construction. I thought that summed it up pretty nicely. I'd also like to point out they have a very cool program, the Kewit Design Build Scholars Program, they provide students with a scholarship and a guaranteed summer internship. now that we've covered just the surface, let's get into our guest today. The first guest is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering? and he also runs the Emerging Technologies Building Information Modeling Lab. So let's dive in and see what civil engineering is really all about. thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to tell us a little bit about civil engineering before we dive into the questions. I'd just love to know more about you, how you got into this field and got to teach and mentor. Sure. So my name's Steve Ayer, I'm associate professor here at CU Boulder. I've been here now for four years. and I've been in this field for quite a bit longer than that. Before this I was at another university and before that I was at Penn State Universities where I did my education. I've always kind of been interested in architectural engineering and now civil engineering. We have both programs here, so I actually teach in both. I love the idea of looking at how we can build our infrastructure to make the lives of us better, whether it be Accessing different places through airports and roads and bridges, or living a better life through better homes, better schools, things like that. I kinda like the idea of building our environment to make life better for everyone. I feel like when I ask students, why did you choose engineering in general? They're like, I want to help people. And that looks so different for each discipline, but I think the overarching idea is I want to help make the world better. Yeah. And when you think about basic needs of the human, like food, water, shelter. We're one of those things directly. And I would argue food and water, we're also kind of a part of making that happen because that all uses our infrastructure. So it yeah, it feels good. Totally. well, how would you describe this major to someone who knows nothing about it? maybe a good way to think about, engineering in general is we have a little bit of a foot in the camp of sort of like the scientists and the basic learning how to advance the human knowledge but also we have to work within the real world of business and applied nature of things. That's engineering in general, right? We're applying scientific principles to some practical context. Our field, civil engineering, is a little bit unique because the product we make where we're applying those scientific principles. Generally speaking, has never been built before. Every building you walk into, every airport, every hospital, every school, has never been built before. Each one's a little bit different, right? And so we have essentially this product that we are making in civil and architectural engineering that's different from project to project to project. The team of individuals that get together to design, engineer, build, operate, maintain that given project, generally speaking, have never worked together before. So we have a team of people who've never worked together making something that's never been done and we expect the outputs to work on the first try, I don't get to build three hospitals hoping the fourth one works. The first one has to work, which is crazy compared to a lot of other engineers where you get to prototype and iterate and test and fail and prototype and iterate and test. We gotta land the plane successfully on the first try because if the hospital doesn't work, people get hurt. And so that's a really cool environment. That civils and architecturals really thrive in? And how would you describe the difference between civil and architectural? I'll paint with a bit of a broad brush, but civil in general tends to be more horizontal infrastructure. So I'm thinking roads, bridges. or infrastructure that carries utilities, whether it be power, water, things that we need, energy, oil, gas, Architectural tends to be more vertical. so I'm thinking buildings and hospitals and airports and stadiums and stuff that's a closed off footprint and is one standalone building. In practice, a lot of our students and civils will still go into more architectural fields, building buildings, and vice versa. It happens both ways, but that's the general difference. and what type of students would you say are drawn to this major? If someone's undecided, how would they know this is a good fit for them? I think for some that have maybe more of an artistic flair, I think the architectural majors are often attractive because there can be more of an aesthetic component to it perhaps than some types of engineering. I think there's also some that want to do things that change, some of the negative impact our built infrastructure has historically had on, say, the environment or in the ways it hasn't served society So I think people who care about their impact of what they do might be drawn to the major. And then I think for some others too, they're introduced to it through family, right? You've got a parent, a neighbor, aunt, uncle, whomever. who's in construction and they talk about what they do in construction and you get to see it and that's really cool. So I think there's a variety of ways people get into it. what would you say makes this major and this discipline particularly exciting right now? this is almost the opposite of the question. So historically, at least in the construction space, we've gotten critiqued for being not as advanced as some fields, and we've been slower to innovate with Robotics where manufacturing's doing a lot of new technology. Right now, I think there's a bit of worry over what skill sets will I need 40 years from now for a lot of our students. That's the duration of their career they're talking about. Civil and architectural, given what we do in the process, first time we build, it's gotta work the first try. The cost of failure is really big in our field. So I think some of what is exciting about it now is the fact that our skill sets. maybe compared to some other domains are likely to be necessary longer because we're probably not gonna trust the AI slop version of a building when it's people's lives on the line. Right. So I think we need people for longer. And in some ways, I think that's really exciting. Yeah, very valuable, tangible skills that you need. switching to the curriculum and the actual major here at CU, as students go through this major, is there any point that you see being really impactful for students, whether that's a particular class, maybe an experience, is there any kind of flip switch moment when they're like, I see it now? I mean, there's probably a bunch. Some of the ones that I hear repeatedly are hands-on based courses. So we've project-based learning throughout the experience at CU. including the first year students will have a project-based course. I'm teaching one of those now, all the way up to their senior year when they're doing their capstone projects, which is a very intensive, typically year-long course where they apply this knowledge. So I think the project-based learning often is that kind of aha moment. And the other moment that I've seen frequently leading to these aha moments is the internships our students get. we're really big on internships. and I look at it as almost a hidden third semester. We don't call it that way, but you're still learning over the summer semester. And frequently that's a moment where students are like, construction, that's for me, or lighting, that's for me, or water systems, that's for me, That can be a really good guider to where they want to go professionally. Yeah, and I would love to capitalize on internships and research opportunities because even just looking through your website, I can tell. Y'all are really big on internships. So what's your advice to students for getting involved in those? start early. internships are hugely valuable. It's a phenomenal experience. You get paid during it, you build your resume during it, you probably even have fun and learn. it's just all around a win. in terms of advice, my suggestion is try in your first year to get an internship. first year students will sometimes say things like, I'm just a first year, I I don't think a company wants me. And this sounds harsh at initial tone, but I often say to students, if you're just a first year and you don't think you're qualified to get an internship, then you're also not qualified to disqualify yourself from an internship. Right. If you follow the double negative thing. Yeah, it's the point being like, try it. Go out and try for an internship. Maybe nothing comes through and you swing and miss a couple of times. Who cares? Then you hand out your resume, you learn job fair experience, what it's like to go shake hands and do that. Even if it doesn't work, you're in the same spot you started in. Give it a shot. It's a fantastic networking opportunity, Try after your first year. If you can get one every summer, do it. Yeah. I tell the students the exact same thing. I tell them, look, you get the practice, you get your resume done, you get your cover letters, you get the feel for what it's like. So I say the same thing. and research, do you have any advice for students that are interested in the research side? I mean, CU is a great school for research. We're a major research institution. if it's a thing students are either curious about or maybe don't know much about, I would encourage them to get involved. Often what that looks like is talking to a faculty member who's research active and seeing if they have either lab assistant positions open or independent study options open or summer research internship opportunities open. There's a number of ways of getting involved, Yeah. And I think a lot of students, sometimes choose majors based on how broad they are. And how many fields can this apply to and so what's your advice for students looking for jobs in this field, I know sometimes if students don't know a lot about it, it feels very narrow when actually there's a lot of different ways it can apply. Do you have thoughts or suggestions? I think there are a lot of things you can do with civil and architectural engineering. I think breadth is kind of a simple premise but tricky in practice. Breadth in terms of number of companies out there, we probably have more in our field than most others because you can have a construction company that's one person in the truck, and that's a company. Yeah. So in terms of number of opportunities, there's a ton of different opportunities out there. I guess I would look at it and say, if you know what you're interested in doing is designing and building our built infrastructure, I think we would probably serve that better in civil and architectural over say mechanical. If you were looking at it and saying, you know what, I really don't know that what I want to do is bridges. and doing, motor design or something seems more attractive. Well then I think it probably makes sense to do mechanical. If the only differentiating factor though, if I'm talking more to a listener, if they're like, I just don't want to shut off options, it makes sense, but I think you ought to pursue what you're most interested in. you're gonna be wrong at some point. You're gonna say, I think I wanna do this, then you do it and figure out I don't wanna do it. Fine, then change. that's always an option, regardless of what flavor of engineering you go into. but my two cents suggestion to a listener is if what you're interested in is the built environment. You could probably get eventually a career in that via mechanical or aerospace or what have you, but civil and architectural will set you up way better. And conversely, if you want something that's in those fields, you could maybe get there with a civil degree, but I think aerospace or mechanical or whatever sets you up way better. So pick what you're interested in, try it. If you're wrong, change. Yeah. Sometimes you gotta figure out what you don't like to figure out what you do. I also feel like when you talk to people you look up to and you respect, how many of them in hindsight have a perfectly linear career? But no one, right? Everyone does something. They say, I did this for five years, I hated it. I tried my own company, it failed. I but then okay, then you change, who cares? Exactly. Yes. and what would you say challenges the students most as they go through this major? I think the coursework is definitely challenging. I don't know that it's uniquely challenging over other types of engineering, though I do think especially when we talk about some of our built systems, every building is the first time it's been made, the team of people is the first time they're working together. So there's actually a lot of engineered systems that have to coexist in the same project. I need lighting and electrical systems, I need mechanical systems, I need fire sprinkler systems. I need architectural systems. So I think sometimes the challenge that can be present for students in this field in terms of the courses and projects is that they have to work with so many others and design not just around the project needs, but the rest of the team's needs as well, which is maybe different than some engineering that's a little bit more isolated in terms of the product they're building or designing. are there any other opportunities within the department you think students should know about early, take advantage of early? So one goes back slightly, but I'll talk internships. this is a real point of pride we have in civil architectural and environmental engineering, C E A E. at CU Boulder. internships are thing we push. At the university level, we push for it. We have university career fairs. At the college level, we push for it. We have college level career fairs. At our own department, we have our own career fair of companies looking for our students. and to put it in perspective, I think this past year we had something like eighty five companies attend, and I think another forty that wanted to that we said, I'm sorry, we do not have space. Yeah, so it's pretty wild of how many people want the resources that our students are intellectually building up to go work for them. it's a resource that I think is a real point of pride. personally, again for the listener, my two cents. I don't think money or career should be everything in your deciding what to pursue, but I think it can be one of the things you consider when deciding where do I want to invest my time. And that's one thing that we do really well, right? We do really good at placing our students in really good jobs upon graduation. I think that's an amazing opportunity for students. Okay, well, we'll move into our rapid fire round. Okay. So I'll ask you a question. First thing that pops to your head, what is the biggest misconception people have about civil? I think a lot of people think civil engineering is something where you're just going to be on site. digging with shovels and swinging hammers and that kind of thing. And theoretically, like some of our students could do that, but I would argue probably ninety-nine percent do not. Most of them are probably going to be possibly in an office on site managing projects or in an office in a, major city designing projects. But most of the work is either managing the work, designing the work, planning for work, more than doing it in the very traditional dusty boots, swinging hammers type of approach. What habits or mindsets can help set students up for success? I think we are a team game and I think you will succeed because you develop people skills. the technical skills are necessary, but given what we do, the first time we're building a project is when we get there. The first time we work with that team is when we're assembled. there's so many firsts at play. Our industry works because of people, and our industry fails because of people. And so students developing the skills to say, This person didn't interact with with me the way I had hoped, but I'm gonna make it work. I think that as a mindset, especially when they're also developing the technical skills they need for, structural analysis or whatever the coursework may be, that is a really powerful combination because so much of your success or failure is about people skills. What makes this engineering discipline meaningful to you? maybe also the people thing. I really like working with people. I like the idea. of what we're doing, whether it be from a research or a practice side of things, is building infrastructure that supports people in some capacity. I sometimes feel like whether it be a political realm or whatever, people often define what they believe by who they don't like and what they don't agree in. Politically, both sides of the aisle can agree, built infrastructure helps us, right? We can all agree this is not a partisan issue. we all want good roads, we all want good airports, we all want good schools, good hospitals, There's something about that that feels rewarding of We all want good built infrastructure. We don't want to just be wasting energy unnecessarily. We want our buildings to make us healthy, not to contribute to other respiratory sicknesses. there's so much that I think about what we make. That is human-centered. And it's almost like we started at the beginning of food, water, shelter. This is what we need to survive. We are directly supporting that. That feels really worthwhile. last question. What is one takeaway you hope the listeners remember? maybe I'll say this because I know not everyone's interested in civil, internships. Whatever flavor of engineering, take the opportunity, get an internship. If it's good. Good. If it's not good, still good because you're gonna learn what you don't want. Get an internship, go learn. It's the hidden third semester. try and fail. You'll learn through that. Awesome. Well, that's all the questions I had. thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thank you all for your time if you made it this far and good luck in deciding what's next in your life. Woo! We did it. All right. Easy enough. Yes. Our second guest today is a current civil engineering student. who brings a unique perspective of what it's like to be a student in this major and in this college. welcome to the podcast, Brooklyn. Excited to have you here. Thanks for coming to give your perspective on civil. I would just love for you to introduce yourself, where you're from, year in school, extracurriculars, really anything you want to share. Thank you so much. so I'm Brooklyn. I'm a fourth year civil engineering student with a focus in geotechnical engineering. I'm actually a transfer student from CU Denver. I transferred my second year. And I'm from Commerce City, Colorado. So pretty local. Well, I would love to hear about your major exploration and decision journey. How did you decide on civil engineering? Were there other majors you were considering? I actually didn't know I was even gonna go into engineering. When I applied for school, I asked my parents, they said pharmacy is a good program. So I applied pre pharmacy. I went in undeclared pre pharmacy. And then starting the semester, one of my friends asked me, Do you like bridges? And I was like, Yeah, bridges are cool. And he was like, You did good in physics, right? And I was like, Yeah. And he's like, try civil engineering. So I took introduction to civil engineering back at C U Denver. And that actually went really well for me. And I found a lot of passion there and a lot of inspiration there. So I joined the American Society of Civil Engineers and just really found a good community there. So when I did transfer up to Boulder, because a lot more of my friends were here and I had a better community up here. And it's just such a wonderful program. Obviously CU Denver has a wonderful program too, but I of want to just take the leap. So I took that leap and came here. And one of the first things I did when I came here is joined the American Society of Civil Engineers here to get that community aspect again. And it's been so cool because it was just that one question from my friend that triggered me to even consider it. and were they in civil engineering? No. They actually make fun of me for being in civil engineering. They're an aerospace engineer. That's so funny. well thanks for sharing. and then How did you decide between civil and architectural? Because they are pretty similar but there are some nuances. Did you know the difference? How did you make that decision? I honestly I didn't know the differences before I kinda went into it. And at CU Denver there's no architectural engineering. There's only architecture, But once I came here and I learned those nuances, I was still pretty happy with my decision to join civil engineering. architectural engineering isn't just design and isn't just the pretty stuff, which is, I think, a very common misconception. It's a lot of things like lighting design and environmental design versus civil engineering is a lot more like how do we put a pipe system with water and how do we make sure the ground is stable enough for this building So there are a lot of similarities. In fact, we have a lot of overlap with Arkees. A lot of our architectural engineers, sorry, Archie if I say that, that's architectural. I love that nickname actually. We call ourselves civvies and we pick up Arkees. So cute. But yeah, so the Arkees, they're in a lot of our classes because we have so much overlap, I guess the biggest difference would be that archies are more on the forefront of the design and civil engineers do stuff in the back. well thanks for sharing that difference. was there anything about the major that you didn't fully understand until you started taking classes? I think a lot of people go into engineering school going, I'm not good at writing, so I'm just gonna go into engineering school. And that's so far from the reality. In fact, so much of being an engineer is being able to explain what you're doing and explain why you're doing it. So you need to have the critical skills to be able to explain to lay people essentially. I need to be able to explain why I built my bridge like that to you. Yeah. If you don't know anything about that, I still need to be able to talk to you about that. Right. Especially since there's so much civil engineering in the public sector the public needs to be informed on why you're making these decisions. those are important skills to build as an engineer and they do make you build those and they do make you exercise those here and they do make you explain things to them. you shouldn't come into engineering going, I'm bad at writing, so I wanna be an engineer. Yeah. You should come into engineering I wanna have a good idea of applied math and how math works in the real world. So I'm gonna become an engineer and just understand that there will be a writing component. Yeah, that communication part is so important. if you come in thinking, well, I'm just gonna let the numbers speak for themselves, they don't speak to me. I don't know what they're saying. And I know there's always talk about marriages between different types of engineering, which is especially important in civil engineering, because there's people called geotechnical engineers and they're in charge of making sure the soil is stable, and there's people called the structural engineers. They're in charge of basically everything above that soil. And if they don't agree, if there's not a marriage there, their numbers can't speak for themselves. They need to be able to communicate with each other and they need to be able to come with an agreement. Because one person can't say one thing and the other person says the other thing. That's how a building fails. also, so you mentioned your focus or emphasis is geotechnical. Do you want to describe what that is? A hundred percent. So it's basically a lot of soil physics. And unfortunately, we've come to find out that soils aren't super predictable. And so there's a lot of things with soils, such as particle size and groundwater water movements. And even clay expansion, which is something that is a super big deal in Colorado. so that's all things that geotechnical engineers deal with. And they're dealing with everything below grade and all the rocks and whatnot. And one of the big things is geotechnical engineering is so important because how can a building be stable on an unstable surface? So what happens if there's an earthquake? Well, it's the geotechnical engineer who's thinking of that stuff, Also things like freeze lines and water tables and all these things that's largely what they do is look into the stability of the ground. what have you found to be the most rewarding about this major? probably the most rewarding part about this major is just the happiness that I get with it, especially when things are starting to be understood. And there's a huge component of doing things physically. You have to take a projects class. You need to work in the manufacturing shop. And just having a physical product in front of you of something you designed is so rewarding. you're not on a computer all day for your work. Sometimes you're in the laser cutting room. Yeah. For many hours staring at the laser. But too many hours. Can't be worse than looking at a screen, right? Yeah, true. and what part of the major has pushed you outside your comfort zone the most or challenged you the most? So I'm actually was not good at math in high school. which no one believes when I tell them, And I think it surprised me just how much math I'm capable of. I don't know how it got in my head that I couldn't do math and I could never understand calculus That was my biggest hesitation before going into the majors. I was like, I'm bad at math, so why would I go be an engineer? it was just hard to be like, let me learn math with that mindset. So it was difficult to get over that mindset and difficult to get over that imposture syndrome, because I was sitting in a calc free classroom looking around, going, I don't belong here. I'm not good at math, which is obviously not true at that point because I had already gotten an A in Caleb. So it's like, yeah, you belong here. So just getting over maybe those longtime things that you've told yourself your entire life that aren't necessarily true has been difficult. And how did you help yourself get out of that mindset? I think it was a lot of looking at myself realistically. And that's really hard to do, kind of stepping out of that bubble and trying to look at things analytically, especially my grades, because I would always tell myself when I get good grade, it's just luck. And if I got a bad grade, well it's cause you suck. But that's not true. Your good grades aren't luck. your good grades are effort and show that learning. So you can't sit there and say, I learned nothing in calc one if you got an A in Calc one. Because you learned calc one. That's what that A means. It's not just there for show. And so being able to look at things objectively and be like, yeah, these grades are a reflection of my learning. And I know that doesn't always work for everyone because I know some people do get maybe lower grades. And I don't want to let that discourage those people. Right. Because I personally did not get very high grades in high school. And obviously it wasn't because I wasn't good enough. It was just because I didn't really find my footing in high school. Right. But especially people with good grades who have imposter syndrome, I want to encourage them to look at those grades as a reflection of themselves because imposter syndrome is so huge in college, especially in engineering. Yeah. So being able just like take a step back and look at yourself analytically Look to your left, look to your right and be like, wow, these are my peers. There's a reason they're my peers. Has there been or what has been the biggest kind of this is why I chose this major moment for you. I don't think I really had a moment where I felt like the degree aligned I think it was just slow buildup of realizing that I was passionate not only passion for it, but also skill in it too. it was very much a buildup of the small moments of getting those grades and putting in those works and not feeling terrible after all of it. Because I remember back in high school, so much of the time I'd spend on homework, I just feel horrible during it. But so much of the time I spend on my engineering homework, I feel confident. And if I don't feel confident, I know I have people to support me. have you been involved in any research or internships or are you going to be? So I haven't gotten super involved into research, but I've done a handful of internships. both of them were at the same place because I was lucky enough to find that I really enjoyed this place the first time. And they gave me different opportunities the second year. So it was with a project management group at the Denver International Airport. shout out DIA. Shout out DIA, exactly. we might mess with the aliens all summer. Yeah. Umcifer. don't say anything bad about Blue Sufer. no, I have the utmost respect for him. According to the conspiracy theories, you can be quite scary. I got to shadow a lot of different people. the second summer, they almost just let me go off on my own, like I was a full time employee. So I got to do all these things and take on all these responsibilities. I think something Very special about this internship, too, is it's something I wanted to do since I was a freshman in college. When I first heard about this internship, I was like, I love aviation. I'd love to bridge civil engineering and aviation. I'd love to have that opportunity. So I applied my freshman year. And I got through to the video interview and they rejected me after that. So when I applied my sophomore year and I joined the video interview because I got through again, they saw me and they went. Hello again, we remember you from last year. And I think that's part of the reason I got hired. So one of the things I always tell everyone is apply for everything. Get out there, get your network. Introduce yourself to people. Apply. even if you don't meet the qualifications, apply. Cause you might meet the qualifications next year and they will remember you. And realize you had interest in them. Also join clubs and engineering and whatnot. I do social media for the American Society of Civil Engineering here at CU Boulder. And there was someone who came up to me earlier this year who said, Hey, I don't know if you remember me, but you're the one who told me to join ASCE. Because of ASCE, I got offered an internship that I really wanted. It made me so happy to hear that. But They very much emphasize they got it from being an ASCE, So I definitely recommend grow that network. join clubs at school. Get involved. And there's so many different clubs, even for minorities in engineering too. there's a club called SWE, Society of Women Engineers. And there's a few, I think there's a society for black engineers and for Hispanic engineers. And so you can really find people who share a similar life trajectory to you and might share in your struggles. Because obviously your identity forms the way that you experience the world. And it's so wonderful to have diverse environments and share diverse perspectives. But there's also something so important about connecting with people who have those similar identities to you as well. kind of along the same lines of internships and experience. Are you considering any particular career paths or even further education in this kind of final year for yourself? Yeah, so it's very common for people with a geotech background. To get a master's. It's one of the things they expect of you when you practice. But I'm actually thinking at this point, I'm not gonna go right into geotech. Part of the reason I chose to focus on it is is because I live in Colorado However, I very much see myself going into project management, especially at the airport. I love Aviation, I love civil aviation. And one of the wonderful things about project management, it is very much you have a job in the field and you have a job in the office. So you're not one or the other. A lot of engineers sit at their computer every single day And that's never seemed super appealing to me. as a project manager, you really do get to be on the field and interact with people. And keep an eye on safety and keep an eye on what's happening out there. But at the same time, own the project in a sense. And so you watch over the finances, watch over the schedule, and manage everyone. Is there's something about the day to day experience of being a civil engineering student that you think it would be helpful for students to know who are considering this major? You're not stupid. I think that's what I would say. I find myself telling that to a lot of freshman engineers and I definitely needed to be told that as a freshman. I feel like there's a lot of people who just say, I'm spending hours on this homework. How am I spending hours on this homework? I must be stupid. Yeah. But you're not stupid, you're just dedicated. You're critically thinking. engineering purposely pushes your horizons this is all intentional. They are intentionally making things complicated. So you have to think through it. It is not weird if you spend five hours on one homework problem. Go to office hours Office hours are wonderful. if you're struggling, don't be afraid to go there. along the same lines, what has helped you succeed academically in this major? Probably office hours. Yeah. there's so many times in office hours where you were really able to pinpoint the issue. Cause oftentimes when you go into office hours you've already worked on it. And you know where you're getting stuck, And so going through that process with the professor, you'll feel stupid because you'll look at it and you'll be like, I should have known that. Yeah. But it's so huge. And I think part of the reason that there's such a decline in going to office hours is because AI can do a very similar thing where it can tell you the exact processes. So you kind of are able to identify where you went wrong in that loop. But there's something so special about being able to get it straight from a professor. And there are so many times when a professor has given me so many different tips or been able to explain it in such deep detail that it's not interchangeable at all. And I think there's also studies coming out that if you use AI, you'll get better. Grades, but you'll get actually worse exam grades Take advantage of office hours. there is never a time you'll get in your life where you'll just able to sit down with a specialist in that field And have their undivided attention for an hour. Take advantage of that when you have the chance to. Yes, absolutely. Are there any misconceptions about this major that you would like to debunk, address? it's funny because I feel like people looking into the engineering school who aren't engineers look at it and go, they're all so smart and it'd be so hard to do those majors and that's not true. But inside of the engineering school you have the aerospace majors and the mechanical engineering majors who look at civil engineers and go, That's easy. Their majors easy and that's also not true. Yeah. And so there's misconceptions on both sides that some people look at it and go, This is too difficult for me to ever do and It's not too difficult, but it's also not an easy major. it's a different challenge and there are different challenges. I also would love to just go back and talk about your transfer experience. Is there anything that you would like to speak on with your transfer experience that maybe other transfer students it would be helpful for them to hear, there are classes like the applied math department, which have the Calc One Calc 2, but they teach just a little bit more than the normal Calc One Calc 2 classes. So if you jump right into applied math, which is, I think, a great class to take, and I would definitely recommend taking the applied math classes over the peered math classes, just because they push you so much But there is gonna be a little gap knowledge there. And there's also so many things that you know. That your classmates don't know. And that just doesn't get highlighted. It doesn't get highlighted in the academic setting because they assume that you learned from there. it's so easy to feel like you're behind and you're gonna take a few classes with freshmen, but then you get to have that advanced knowledge in that class and get a deeper understanding of that subject. I definitely recommend looking at the degree map online. CU Boulder has that for civil engineering at least. And you could look at the degree map and see if someone's on my track, what classes would they take and enroll in those classes. go to transfer orientation. Talk to people. I still am friends with the people at orientation. even though a lot of them have switched out of engineering in pursuit of other things. And remember that you're not I know so much of this comes back to remember you're not stupid. Yeah. But it's true, remember you're not stupid. And remember that in the places that you feel behind, you're actually ahead of them in other places. I remember I was one of the few people in my class who knew transportation engineering because I had taken that at CU Denver, but they don't really offer that until you're a senior at CU Boulder. And so there was one day I was talking about transportation engineering very technically with the professor. And the professor stops midway through this conversation because he was in the middle of class. I think he was showing us blueprints and how to read them. And I asked specifically, hey, there's no spiral curve notated into this curve on the road. Was there a spiral curve designed for this curve? Because I was taught in my transportation engineering class that that's best practice to design a spiral curve. And so we had a bit of a conversation about it. And then he turned to the rest of the class and went, This is transportation engineering, guys. You guys will get there. And at that moment, just really quick, I feel behind, but I'm not behind. I really hesitate to say ahead or behind because you're not really ahead or behind any of them. You're moving with them, and that's what it should be. You guys should be moving as a pack, and that really gets disturbed when you transfer because the pack that you were moving with is all of a sudden not the pack that you're trying to move with. Yeah. And it's an adjustment for sure. And I was very lucky to transfer within the Colorado system. So my GPA transferred over. I know so many people who transferred and they didn't have a GPA. it's one of those double-edged swords where it's like, yeah, you have no cushion to fall on, but if you're not doing the best at your current institution you have a chance at a start over. And I think to your point of you're not head or behind, you just have different pools of knowledge and different perspectives and experiences. And so you have these other things that you can still meaningfully contribute. A hundred percent. And I think that's also one of the best parts of a team. the reason you have a team isn't so that you have five people who are exactly alike working on something. You want to have diverse opinions and diverse experiences. So if I know transportation engineering And if my partner is really good at structural engineering, we have a ability to create a road. really take pride in those ways that make you different from your classmates. Take pride in the knowledge that you have that your classmates don't have. For example, I remember my classmates now that I'm a senior, they've all started taking transportation engineering. So I was able to help them prepare for their exams and whatnot. And in turn, they would help me with some of the things that they'd already done that I hadn't done yet. And don't try to hide the fact that you don't know stuff also. There were many times when I felt like, no, I have to hide the fact that I don't know this because everyone else around me knows it. But if you do that Then you're just gonna be sitting there as a senior going, I don't know what torque is. And that's not good. That was not based on personal experience, I should say. I know what torque is. But there are many people who I have heard similar stuff from, and it's not a failing on their part. Right. It's because they Too scared to admit that they didn't know it. And so especially for transfer students, there are gonna be laps in your knowledge based on your peers' knowledge. Don't be afraid to ask questions. I bet someone was like, thank God they asked that question because I was too afraid to. I do that. All the time. it happens all the time when I'm like, I feel like I have a question, but I can't remember if they already went over it in class. And someone in front of me asks, and I'm like, wow, I'm so happy they asked that. And there have actually been times when I've asked a question, and the person next to me went, Thank you for asking that. I was too scared to ask that. Well, we're gonna move into our rapid fire round. I'll ask a question and just the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay. Let's do it. If you could go back to the moment you were choosing your major, what would you wanna know about civil engineering? That it's very diverse. and how many opportunities there are in civil and also how applicable a civil engineering degree is. So when you do civil engineering, you're not pinning yourself in a corner whatsoever. And that's an idea I had about civil engineering was that if I do this, I'm gonna be designing bridges for the rest my life. Right. Not true. Yeah. At all. What is the most underrated tip for balancing school and social life, self-care? Ooh, this is good because it's something I've really struggled with. I'd say one of the best tips I have is if you have to miss a question on your homework in order to take a shower, take a shower. Take care of yourself because you will do infinitely better if you feel good. And so Do your best until it starts to affect you. If you're working on your homework and your friends say, Hey, do you want to go for a walk? Go on that walk. there have been many times when I've sat there and been like, okay, so I can either do this problem and take a shower and lose an hour of sleep. And ultimately sometimes it is the best decision to take a shower and go to sleep. Are you really helping your learning if you're sitting up at midnight studying something? Because at that point you're doing it just to get it done. And there are some times when I get it, GPA, You wanna keep that up, you wanna keep your grade up. But you're gonna learn so much better if you take that shower. And that sounds so simple, but it's so true. Or find small routines that just bring you joy. I know I like doing my makeup. And so having those fifteen minutes to myself in the morning is very life giving to me. And just having that time with that creative sense of myself or drawing or small things I add in my day that are very life giving and take Not as much time. And also I've had to have a lot of conversations with my brother about this because he's really scared that if he turns off his brain at all, it'll stay off. But I'm like, silence is incredible. It does so much for your brain. I make it a point in my routine to sit in silence for at least a few hours. Wow. Every week. No homework. Just sit in silence. and experience silence. And it sounds so counterintuitive 'cause it's like Brooklyn, you're taking time away from time you could be doing homework. And you're not even doing something, quote, fun. It is so healing to your brain. and I found that since doing that I'm spending so much less time on homework and I have more time to be social with my friends and I have more time to take care of myself. And it's so peaceful and that's a joy that we don't get as much nowadays. I mean, I even think of it like sleep, you know, they say sleep is the best recovery for your brain, for your body. And so yeah, that silence, that removal of stimulation is almost the same thing as sleep. Yeah. And it's also allowing you to think There have been times when I have sat there not even thinking about my homework and all of a sudden the thing I did wrong on my homework comes to me. Yeah. And things like that happen all the time. And that's one of those things that you really build up to. And then you can really get in touch with those critical thinking skills, eventually that stress kind of starts to melt and you think about different ways to solve it. And you could be present with your friends. Or even I know I told my brother specifically, stop bringing your music into the shower. Just experience the noise of the shower. Let yourself rest. I guess that's what it all comes back to is let yourself rest. Remember you're a human. You can't run on zero gallons. Yeah, absolutely. Well, last official question: What makes this engineering discipline meaningful to you? Infrastructure is the root of everything. I love civil engineering in specific because infrastructure is everywhere, including in places you would never know. And if you think about if an apocalypse happens and they need to start cutting on engineers in different places, they're not gonna cut the people who know how to keep the water system clean. Yeah and the people who make shelter, And obviously there's a lot of benefit to other types of engineering because they really satisfy human curiosity, But civil engineers keep us alive and keep us healthy. The fact that you can go to your sink and turn on the water, a civil engineer did that. There are so many things you take for granted, which is also why there's a very special thing with civil engineering, where it's almost feels like if you're into sports, a bit of a sports analogy, you're like the lineman of the engineering world. Where you only get notice if you do your job wrong. Yeah. If you fail, there's high stakes. Yeah. High stakes, high rewards. someone came into American Society of Civil Engineer to give a company speech, basically. And one of the things that they said that really resonated with me is. Obviously, this is rough quoting. Yeah. I should say this. Paraphrasing. Paraphrasing. Roughly what she said is I have so many friends who really want to help the environment, And they try to think about ways they could do that. And there's very little they can do. But there are things I can do. I can make more efficient buildings. You would never guess how much emissions get released from the making of cement and how much of a need there is for sustainability and infrastructure. And so it's especially wonderful because you have the opportunity to make the world a better place. I know they say that all the time, but you on a large scale get to make the world a better place. If you care about environmental, you have the ability to make an impact there. If you care about keeping water safe and finding ways to keep humans healthy. You can do that. And it's crazy because there's so many things that people feel helpless looking at but infrastructure can be the solution. My gosh, this is making me want to be a civil engineer. That is so special and yeah, so uplifting. as long as you have perseverance, you can totally do it. And you can change the world as a civil engineer. And It's gonna be in such small ways that it's not gonna be national news when you do it, likely. But you'll make a difference. if it's truly important to you that you're gonna get fame and recognition, civil engineering isn't for you. Yeah. But civil engineers truly change lives Well that's all the questions I had. Was there anything you felt like you wanted the opportunity to say or didn't speak on? No, just you're worthy. You can do whatever you set your mind to and it's never too late to change your mind Thank you so much, Brooklyn, for giving this perspective. It's so fun to just talk about something I'm so passionate about. I know it emanates from you. I can feel it. yeah. So thank you so much. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our civil engineering episode. Thank you all so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned a little something. And as always, keep your ears and eyes open for the next episode. Bye y'all.