Young Engineer of the Year Award, 2018

January 30, 2018

Grace Lefebure, The Boeing Company

2018 Award Recipient

Grace Lefebure

Grace Lefebure
The Boeing Company

Nominated by the Society of Women Engineers

Grace Lefebure, The Boeing Company, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018  Young Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions as a stress analysis engineer while working on projects related to aerodynamic performance, static and fatigue testing, and bird strike impact.  She developed eco-friendly leading edge technology for the 757 EcoDemonstrator program that is aimed at improving fuel efficiency and lessening the environmental impact.  She has also worked on developing collaboration tools for the 777X program and developed automated stress analysis processes that streamline repetitive analytical tasks while improving data quality and consistency.  She is currently working on advanced modeling methods for analysis of aircraft seats.

She has been very active as a leader in the Society of Women Engineers; serving as the Newsletter Editor, Vice President for Professional Development, and Section President.  As Newsletter Editor, she incorporated the newsletter into a larger strategic plan for the section’s virtual brand that includes brand-integrated social media accounts.  As the Vice President for Professional Development, she planned professional development events and networking events and started a monthly book club.  As Section President, she leads the Section Executive Council in planning, organizing, and executing professional development, outreach, and recognition activities as serves as liaison with the national organization.

She worked with a team of public school teachers to develop math, science, and engineering problem-based learning units for 4th and 5th grade students as part of the Washington Alliance for Better Schools STEM fellows program.  Her team’s units focused on renewable energy, electricity, and power and required students to use critical thinking and logic to make decisions.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

K-12 STEM Engineering Teacher of the Year, 2018

Elana Slagle, Starfish Education

2018 Award Recipient

Elana Slagle

Elana Slagle
Starfish Education

Nominated by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Elana Slagle, Starfish Education, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 K-12 STEM Engineering Teacher of the Year in recognition of her many contributions to the education of K-12 students.  She works with K-12 schools to develop and test new STEM curricula and provides professional development for Puget Sound area teachers on how to incorporate STEM into their daily lessons.

She is involved with four specific activities that demonstrate exceptional performance in improving K-12 STEM education.  They are Lindbergh Electric Airplane Flight (LEAF) STEM Challenge, curriculum development for the Washington Informal Science Education (WISE) Consortium, serving on the Champion’s Board for the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), and serving on the Educational Advisory Board for the Museum of Flight.  The LEAF STEM Challenge is an aircraft design competition for junior high and high school students.  They are given an electric motor and design constraints, and then asked to design an electric airplane to compete against other teams.  The student teams are required to document their work, present to a panel of judges, and demonstrate the capability of their airplanes to carry a payload.

The WISE curriculum for grade school students requires the students to design and build straw rockets.  These students then conduct a series of rocket launches to track the impact of different design features (size, weight, thrust, etc.) and plot the results.  The NGCP provides a math-centered cryptography project that helps the girls use and refine math skills and identify potential STEM careers by teaching them how to make, break, and decipher codes.

She is an active Educator Associate of AIAA and has served as the National STEM Chair.  She received the National Chairman’s Award for her work in STEM education in 2014.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Kenneth W. Porter Award, 2018

Dana Day, The Boeing Company

2018 Award Recipient

Dana Day

Dana Day
The Boeing Company

Nominated by the Society of Women Engineers

Dana Day, The Boeing Company, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Kenneth W. Porter Award in recognition of her many contributions to the education of K-12 students by showing them the exciting opportunities available in engineering. She works as a project engineer in the 737 flight controls organization at Boeing, where she leads value engineering projects to identify cost savings and validate the cost benefits for each project. In 2017, her teams booked over $13,000 in savings per 737 airplane for flight controls components.

She has long been an advocate for promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to young girls and is an excellent role model for K-12 students.  As the Section Outreach Coordinator, she launched the highly popular SWENext program for girls in K-12 to engage with STEM mentors, learn about engineering through activities, and build a network of like-minded STEM girls.  This year she helped organize the 2017 Design Lab event at the society’s local regional conference for over 120 middle school students, 60 parents and educators, and 40 volunteers.  For the Washington Alliance for Better Schools, she has taught mathematics to 4th and 5th grade students as part of a six-week, after-school program.  For the past seven years during Engineers’ Week, she visited numerous schools in the Puget Sound Region promoting engineering as a career. She also reinvigorated a relationship between the Section and the Girl Scouts and organized “exploring engineering” events that hosted large groups of Scouts several times per year.

She serves as an outstanding role model for young students who are trying to find a path in STEM education.  She motivates others by illuminating the potential to make a social impact as an engineer.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Professional Engineer of the Year, 2018

David B. Swanson, P.E., S.E., Reid Middleton, Inc.

2018 Award Recipient

Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineers Association of Washington

David Swanson

David B. Swanson, P.E., S.E.
Reid Middleton, Inc.

David B. Swanson, P.E., S.E., Reid Middleton, Inc., has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Professional Engineer of the Year Award for his commitment to promoting professional engineering excellence and innovation, mentorship of younger engineers, promotion of public safety, and ongoing work to advance the engineering profession.  He designs and manages projects for clients in the aviation, civil, commercial, educational, healthcare and military sectors.  His expertise lies in improving our infrastructure’s seismic resilience and promoting earthquake preparedness and response to seismic risk.   He excels at communicating the need for ongoing seismic resilience to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.  His energy, drive, and enthusiasm for addressing seismic risk have led to his personal and professional success.

He represents engineers nationally as a member of the Disaster Response and Recovery Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers and serves on FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue Washington Task Force as a structural engineer evaluating collapsed buildings for urban search and rescue operations.  He has organized and led earthquake response and reconnaissance teams to research lessons learned from devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan (1995), Taiwan (1999), China (2008), Chile (2010), Haiti (2010), New Zealand (2011), Japan (2011) and Mexico (2017).  This experience has enabled him to design innovative seismic protection systems for both historic and modern structures.

Throughout his career, he has been actively involved as a consulting structural engineer.  He is a sought-after peer reviewer, code consultant, analysis reviewer, and technical speaker on structural and earthquake engineering.  He has authored over 25 technical papers on seismic and structural design, earthquake risk reduction, emergency preparedness, and the seismic rehabilitation of historic and essential buildings and infrastructure.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Government Engineer of the Year, 2018

January 10, 2018

Jeffery A. Lundt, P.E., Wastewater Treatment Division of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks

2018 Award Recipient

Jeffery Lundt

Jeffery A. Lundt, P.E.
Wastewater Treatment Division of the King Co. Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks

Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers

Jeffrey A. Lundt, P.E., Wastewater Treatment Division of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Government Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his many contributions to improving the region’s wastewater infrastructure. He is always looking for better way to deliver projects and seeks innovative solutions to design challenges.

He served as the project manager for the Marine Outfall for the Brightwater Treatment Plant Project.  Since this was the first project executed by the Wastewater Treatment Division using a design-build delivery method, there was considerable learning that was needed by the staff.  He was instrumental in structuring the contract terms to be fair to both parties.  The Marine Outfall was completed 22 months early for a total cost of about 75% of the budgeted amount.  Since completion of the project, he has served as a Principal Wastewater Engineer and the Mechanical Engineering Group Lead in the Technical Services Group.  In this role, he is a project engineer for consultant-designed projects and several in-house projects.

He developed variations to the typical procurement criteria for major treatment systems which allow the Division to select a process and manufacturer based on a variety of criteria.  This allows selection of the vendor early in the design process to enable knowledge of support needs and incorporate them in the bid documents.  In a typical procurement process, the general contractor selects the equipment, and the structure often needs modification to enable installation of the selected equipment.

Prior to joining King County, he spent 29 years as an engineering consultant for several firms in the Puget Sound region.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

2018 PSEC Awards Announced

January 9, 2018

PSEC is pleased to announce that the following individuals have been selected for recognition at the annual PSEC Engineer of the Year Awards Banquet to be held on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at the Museum of Flight:

Academic Engineer of the Year – Professor Marc O. Eberhard, Ph. D., University of Washington, (SEAW)

Government Engineer of the Year – Jeffrey A. Lundt, PE, Wastewater Treatment Division of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, (ASCE)

Kenneth W. Porter Award – Dana Day, The Boeing Company, (SWE)

K-12 STEM Engineering Teacher of the Year – Elana Slagle, Starfish Education, (AIAA)

Young Engineer of the Year – Grace Lefebure, The Boeing Company, (SWE)

Professional Engineer of the Year – David B. Swanson, PE, SE, Reid Middleton, Inc., (ASCE and SEAW)

« Previous Page — Next Page »

2018 PSEC Awards Nominations Open

November 7, 2017

It is time to recognize members of your organizations.  Below are the Awards Nomination Forms and instructions for completion for the seven awards to be presented at the February 10, 2018 PSEC Engineering Awards Banquet at the Museum of Flight.

Please identify deserving members of your organizations and submit nominations to the Awards Committee by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 15, 2017.  If you have any questions, please contact me at jesbcon@uw.edu.

Nomination Forms

Below are the nomination forms for each award a Guide for Preparation of Engineer-of-the-Year-Nominations is also shown below. Please provide the required information completely and concisely and follow the posted instructions . Limit nomination packages to 8 pages.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

2017 PSEC Awards Announced

January 18, 2017

The 2017 PSEC Awards Committee is pleased to announce the following individuals who have been selected for recognition at the annual PSEC Engineering Awards Banquet to be held on Saturday, February 11, 2017 at the Museum of Flight.

Academic Engineer of the Year – Dr. H. David Stensel, PE, University of Washington, (ASCE)

Government Engineer of the Year – R. Alan Murray, PE, Snohomish County Department of Planning and Development Services, (ASCE)

Industry Engineer of the Year – Majid Abab, The Boeing Company, (IISE)

Kenneth W. Porter Award – Eset Alemu, PE, Seattle Public Utilities, (ASCE)

K-12 STEM Engineering Teacher of the Year – Noah Crofoot, Lynnwood High School, Edmonds School District (ASCE)

Professional Engineer of the Year – J. Mark D’Amato, PE, SE, DCI Engineers, (ASCE and SEAW)

Young Engineer of the Year – Don Nguyen, PE, COWI North America, (ASCE)

The Awards Committee congratulates these outstanding individuals. Please plan to attend the banquet to celebrate their accomplishments.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Professional Engineer of the Year, 2017

Mark D’Amato, P.E. S.E.
DCI Engineers

Mark D’Amato, P.E., S.E., DCI Engineers

2017 Award Recipient

Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineers Association of Washington

Mark D’Amato, P.E., S.E., DCI Engineers, has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 Professional Engineer of the Year Award for his outstanding service to the engineering profession and his lifetime of achievement in excellence and innovation in structural engineering. He  designs and manages projects for clients in the commercial, medical, residential, industrial, and marine sectors.  His expertise lies in the design of post-tensioned concrete and steel framed structures.  His special areas of interest include high-rise building design, seismic retrofit, and the design of brick and structural glass cladding systems.

He has extensive project experience gained over his 38-year career as a structural engineer.  His engineering for low cost housing and municipal buildings are noteworthy for their economical and durable designs.  Many of his iconic structures have changed the skylines of cities while pushing the envelope of engineering and construction practice.  Throughout his career, he has advocated for advances in engineering techniques that contribute to building efficiency and streamlined construction.  The University District’s 47th + 7th apartment building was the result of nearly seven years of research and development into modular construction techniques.  Using pre-fabricated steel framed wall and floor systems containing plumbing, electrical systems, fire sprinklers, and interior cabinetry; it was assembled like an erector set.  The outcome was a highly sustainable and sleek, modern building that does not appear as a modular building.

In addition to his engineering work, he is actively involved in his community.  He participated in Washington STEM and the Bellevue Downtown Association.  He hosts high school students to tour the Seattle Center to show the works of several great civil/structural engineers who contributed to the amazing structural legacy.  He often visits local high schools to encourage students to pursue careers in structural engineering.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Young Engineer of the Year Award, 2017

Don Nguyen, P.E., COWI North America

Don Nguyen, P.E.
COWI North America

2017 Award Recipient

Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers

Don Nguyen, P.E., COWI North America, has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 Young Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his excellent work in the design of multiple high profile bridge projects across the United States and Canada.  Projects include a balanced cantilever bridge (St. Croix Approach Structures in MN), a cable-stayed bridge (Ohio River Bridges in KY – IN), a pedestrian bridge (Marine Education Center Bridge in Ocean Springs, MS), an arch bridge (Wellsburg, WV), and a retrofit bridge (Champlain Bridge in Montreal, Canada).

He has been very active with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Younger Member Forum (YMF) and currently serves as the president-elect of the organization.  He served as co-coordinator of the 2015-2016 ASCE Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Competition for high school and middle school students and participates on the YMF scholarship committee to select recipients for the annual YMF scholarships.  For 2014-2015, he served as the YMF Secretary. As the YMF Community Service Chair for 2013-2014, he organized monthly volunteer activities including Seattle Works Day, Kiwanis Park Clean Up, Rebuilding Together, Farestart Kitchens, Habitat for Humanity, and Green Seattle Day.  He worked with the coordinating committee tasked with organizing the ASCE National Student Steel Bridge competition held at the University of Washington in 2013.  For his exceptional service to ASCE, he was awarded the 2016 Seattle Section Outstanding Volunteer Award and the 2016 Younger Member in Community Activities Award.

He serves an engineering liaison to the Highline School District and coordinates engineers to visit their schools and project site tours for the students. He encourages participation in the ASCE Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Competition and helps organize student career fairs at Highline High School

« Previous Page — Next Page »