The second installment in our Ethics in Civil Engineering series takes a look at environmental racism.

From greenaction.org, the factors that culminate into environmental racism are "the institutional rules, regulations, policies or government and/or corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for locally undesirable land uses and lax enforcement of zoning and environmental laws, resulting in communities being disproportionately exposed to toxic and hazardous waste based upon race."

So how exactly does it manifest?

Welcome to our Ethics in Civil Engineering series! Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing some of the ethical concerns we must consider as civil engineers. Whether we like it or not, our work has an impact on living, breathing communities, and we must be careful to understand exactly what that impact is. We hope that these posts can be used as an educational tool to do just that.

Our first post tackles gentrification.

ASCE at UCLA would like to congratulate our very own Suraj Patel for winning the 2017 Outstanding Civil Engineering Student in CA for Region 9. ASCE Region 9 Individual Awards recognize individuals for outstanding achievements or leadership in civil engineering, or who through their work, support and advance the profession. Each year, ASCE Region 9 presents Individual Awards at the Annual ASCE Region 9 California Infrastructure Symposium and Awards Dinner.  These Awards are selected from nominations made by the Sections, Branches, Younger Member Forum, Life Member Forum, Technical Groups, Committees, and individual members.

For those who may not know, Suraj Patel served as the president for ASCE at UCLA for the 2016-2017 school year. His dedication and effort to helping ASCE move forward were unlike any other, as he was always able to get the best out of his officers during his year as president. Congratulations Suraj!

February 2018 marks UCLA ASCE’s fifth trip to the annual Associated Schools of Construction Regions 6&7 Student Competition in Sparks, Nevada. With the primary goal of building a student’s general understanding of fundamental construction principles and concepts, UCLA ASC 67 Construction Management participates in three of the many sub-competitions that comprise the competition, each of which condenses a portion of the construction management industry into a two-day experience where teams of eight students solve and present their solution to a discipline-specific problem statement. Participants are asked to complete tasks commonly encountered in the construction industry, which include creating a project schedule, performing quantity takeoffs, preparing a cost estimate, and assembling a complete project proposal. Teams are scored by judges and industry professionals based on the accuracy, the logic, and the execution of their project.

The Design-Build and Mixed Use Teams – led by Alexander Lee and Claire Killian, respectively – have returned, but in response to an increased student interest in the increasingly popular industry trend of sustainable construction, we’ve introduced an all-new Sustainability Team led by Amberly Bark and Ryan Rizeq. Our team of 24 students that will attend the competition come early February have been finalized as of November and preliminary preparation workdays have since begun.

A large part of preparation for this competition has included and will continue to include regular workshops and workdays that establish a firm foundation of construction concepts and practices for our competing members. In October, W.E. O’Neil Construction started us off with an introduction to the basics of Bluebeam, and in November, Swinerton Builders and C.W. Driver each hosted a workshop of their own – one with a focus on pre-construction and scheduling and one with an emphasis on the project management software Viewpoint and estimating. More preparation and other team building workshops have helped our team through the new year, going into the competition in early February. With the help of experienced industry professionals who coach the team we will be ready to compete next week in Reno!