Engineers Week: Advancing Women in Engineering

One of the highlights of Engineers Week is “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,” observed this year on February 24. The day is dedicated to educating young women about careers in the engineering field. Inspired by that idea, a few of Stantec’s most talented senior women engineers contributed some advice for young women pursuing careers in engineering. Good advice for any professional.

1. Build your hard and soft skills – Women interested in engineering should not only work on their technical foundation, but also develop their soft skills. The importance of being a good written and verbal communicator is invaluable in this profession.

2. Know your goals, gain respect – Focus on your own career goals rather than others’ goals for you, then exceed them. There was a time when fewer women entered the engineering field—it was often a challenge to be accepted as an equal, but accomplishments speak for themselves.

3. Do what you love – Find an area of engineering that you have a passion for. Don't chase the money as a reason to follow that particular path. If you love what you do, you'll be so successful that the rewards will come.

4. Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer – Volunteering your time will put you in the driver’s seat of your engineering career. Whether with industry or community organizations, volunteering will give you early credibility as a hard working, passionate practitioner while providing relationships and learning experiences that are priceless.

5. Work/life balance is essential – Having a successful career as an engineer is a matter of balance. Significant others, family and friends are what give your life passion and passion with perseverance makes anything possible.

6. Know your teachers, be a consummate student – Determine who the key mentors, coaches, teachers, leaders and peers are in your professional life. These people will arm you with insight to deal with challenges ahead and those challenges will make you stronger. Likewise, show real interest in your colleagues, what they’re doing, and how you can learn from each other.

7. Act the part, be the part – To make a good impression and be taken seriously, look people in the eye when you speak to them, speak clearly and confidently and be direct. There is always a human aspect to any kind of engineering project – communicate that element and stay mindful that the technical component of a project is only one small component.

8. Question everything – Sometimes status quo exists because nobody questioned the process or took the initiative to change it. This is true for engineering designs or even day-to-day office culture. Always look for a better way to accomplish a project.

9. Remember that attitude with integrity is everything – You will accomplish what you believe you can accomplish. Young engineers—males and females alike—may be given simple tasks, but each of these is an opportunity to problem solve, be responsible, and analyze everything in front of you (and be a better professional for it).

Stantec Q&A: Surveyor and pro lacrosse player Mike Carnegie

Mike Carnegie takes the phrase “out in the field” quite literally. In addition to working as a survey analyst for Stantec in Calgary, AB, Mike is a professional lacrosse player. He was recently named to the Canadian national team for the World Indoor Box Lacrosse Championships and last summer brought his sport to children in Africa.

Q: What’s an average work day for you?

A: Currently, I am a survey analyst in the engineering side of the Geomatics Group, although I have performed many roles within the group. For me, an average day at work consists of preparing an engineering package for our Urban Land Engineering team and filling one or two eLibrary requests. So, for the engineering package, that means I might take the underground utilities, sidewalks, roads, lanes, lots, curbs, etc. of a subdivision and turn that design into a suitable format for the surveyors. Our eLibrary is an initiative set up in Alberta to help Stantec employees retrieve various types of data. In Calgary, I am the lead on the project and help many departments find aerial photographs, land titles, survey plans, contour maps, linework, and anything used in the concept and design stages.

Q: How long have you been playing lacrosse? 

A: I have been playing lacrosse for 16 years now. I play professionally for the Calgary Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse league (NLL). My route to the NLL started in Buffalo where I was asked to attend an open tryout and from there I was selected to the practice roster. After a year in Buffalo, one of the Buffalo coaches accepted a head coaching job in Calgary and asked if I would come west with him. Now, I am entering my fourth season with the Roughnecks.

Q: Is it difficult to balance time between your lacrosse and survey careers?

A: It can be challenging at times to balance both careers but having an understanding boss makes it much easier. Both jobs have taught me the importance of time management. With lacrosse, I have to be diligent that I plan my days accordingly so that I can train/workout in order to be prepared. In the same way, I need to be organized for Stantec so that I meet my deadlines.

Q: How did you end up bringing lacrosse to Africa?

A: In August of 2010, along with members of my church, my wife and I went to Uganda on a two-week service trip. I contacted the Alberta Lacrosse Association to let them know what I was doing and they donated over 100 lacrosse sticks for me to take for the children we were working with. I ended up teaching lacrosse on a sunny Friday in Africa to 50 or so orphaned children who had never heard of or seen the game of lacrosse. It was an amazing opportunity that I will remember forever. My faith is the most important thing in this world to me and I always take great strides to jump at opportunities to share it.

Insider's View: South Ferry Subway Station

New video is here! In our new featured video (available on the right under “Stantec TV”), Stantec’s Stu Lerner takes us on a tour of the new South Ferry subway station in New York City. The project involved reconstructing this early-20th-century station within the challenging environmental, historic, and space constraints of Lower Manhattan, Battery Park, and New York Harbor.

Click on the video to see the new station and learn more about how it came together.

Is your field ready for some football?

Submitted by Mark Novak, Senior Associate/Sport Leader (Boston, MA)

This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and the first NFL playoff game in Dallas’ new Cowboys Stadium. Like many new stadiums, Cowboys Stadium features synthetic turf, which is becoming increasingly popular at facilities that not only host high-contact sports like football, but also market themselves as year-round venues for various other sporting and entertainment events.

The debate over natural versus synthetic turf continues to swirl in athletic field design circles, with both surfaces having pros and cons depending on their intended uses. But professional-grade football stadiums certainly seem to be making the switch to synthetic thanks to tough weather-related conditions on natural grass and the increasing demand on the fields. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field, for example, has been criticized for its inconsistent natural grass playing surface. Heinz Field is not only the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers but it is also hosts the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, several area high school football championships, and other athletic events. Due to the ever increasing demand on the field, a decision has recently been reached to convert Heinz Field to synthetic turf.

Gillette Stadium

In 2006, the owners of the New England Patriots made the move to convert Gillette Stadium’s natural grass to synthetic turf after several consecutive games played during bad weather damaged the field. While the mid-season switch was instigated primarily for that season’s NFL play, the decision was influenced by many more factors outside of football. For starters, Gillette is also the home field for the New England Revolution, a Major League Soccer team. And, at the time the stadium was in the midst of planning Patriot Place, a retail development surrounding and connected to the stadium, including shops, restaurants, and a hotel. Patriot Place has been part of the site’s growth into a major entertainment hub for the greater Boston area, with the stadium now hosting concerts, NCAA lacrosse tournaments, and other events that certainly add wear and tear to the field surface.

Lincoln Fields in Lexington, Massachusetts

This is one area in which synthetic turf seems to be winning the debate—it undeniably holds up to such constant demand better than natural grass could. And it’s not just the professionals that are looking for that kind of flexibility; many colleges, high schools, and community recreation departments are also looking for ways to stretch their resources. A few years ago, the Town of Lexington, Massachusetts, for instance, launched a big effort to convert several of its playing fields to synthetic turf. The conversion solved a number of problems for them, from the major strain the high demand of the community athletic program was putting on the natural grass fields to the new turf’s ability to function as a stormwater detention basin.

Of course, synthetic turf is not always the best solution—different fields have different needs and should be designed accordingly. But as more high-demand, multi-purpose facilities like Cowboys Stadium take shape, we won’t see a decline in its use anytime soon.

Enjoy the game!