SPECIAL PDCA EVENT
Looking Back at DICEP 2014
A review of PDCA’s DICEP conference from two student attendees
By Jed McFarlane and Matt Rahmeyer, Utah State University
The opportunity as a student to
attend PDCA’s Design and Installation
of Cost-Efficient Piles
(DICEP) conference in Salt Lake City was
extremely beneficial as well as exciting.
Meeting and networking with professionals
both inside and outside the academic world,
hearing concepts being applied that we are
learning in the classroom and also what
type of jobs are available is invaluable as we
prepare for our own careers.
The professionals we were able to
interact with and hear presentations from
were nothing but encouraging to us. Many
that we spoke with asked us to send resumes
to their companies if we were searching
for employment. Getting to talk to them
and ask questions gave us insight into how
real-world companies operate, and the massive
budgets that are required for certain
projects. One project that stuck in all of
our minds was the representatives from
American Piledriving Equipment (APE)
telling us about the cylindrical piles in China
that required many months of preparation,
several miles of hydraulic lines and yet were
driven in less than 20 minutes. Also, the
chance to talk to professionals that are not
engineers or professors was very beneficial as
they gave insight into how the contractor side
of construction operates.
In the classroom, we are taught about
many different types of foundations and
foundation design, but this conference
showed us that there are also unconventional
applications for different foundation
methods. The presentation by Alexander
Filotti on the geotechnical capacities of
tapered piles was an example of a nonstandard
pile shape that we had not learned
much about. Also the presentation by
Miguel Pando on the load capacities of
sheet piles as load bearing structures gave
us an example of sheet piles being used in a
nonstandard manner.
We are very appreciative of PDCA
and its executive director, Steve Hall, and
especially of Dr. Joe Caliendo of Utah State
University for the opportunity to attend
the conference. This opportunity would be
valuable to current and future students that
are interested in geotechnical engineering
as it gives an inside look into the current job
field and what they could possibly be doing.
It also provides both the students and professionals
a chance to network for possible
employment opportunities. t
American Spirit / Shutterstock
Matt Rahmeyer received a Bachelor of Science degree in hydrogeology
from Utah State University and is currently working on a Master
of Science thesis degree in geotechnical engineering from Utah State
University.
Jed McFarlane is currently working on a Bachelor of Science degree
in civil engineering at Utah State University and plans on pursuing a
Master of Science in geotechnical engineering at Utah State University.
Utah State University engineering students with Frank Rausche of Pile
Dynamics, Inc.
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