The higher profile a project is, for instance, the more it relies on
good communication with the client, the project team, abutters,
municipalities, cities, etc. Getting to an answer, a design, or coming
up with an engineering product is one thing, but your ability to
communicate what that is and why it's the best idea is often the
difference between whether the project goes ahead or not.
How did you end up as a geostructural engineer?
WC: Part of my journey of discovering was the realization was that
I wasn't a pure structural engineer. Once I had my master’s degree,
I was offered a really nice fellowship from UMass Amherst to stay
and get my Ph.D. As part of that program, I got to be a visiting
researcher and intern at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in
Oslo for five months, and that was an awesome opportunity. I was
also part of an interdisciplinary offshore wind research group that
had economists, regional planners and political scientists as well
as biologists, mechanical engineers, civil engineers – everyone
coming from different angles trying to figure out how to support
U.S. offshore wind development. That was a great experience,
getting to interface with a bunch of different disciplines, all trying
to pursue the same goal.
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CAREER STORY
You joined Haley & Aldrich right after graduating
with your Ph.D. What is a typical day like now for
you there?
WC: Well, these days it begins with the long commute across the
hallway to my home office. I’ve been working remotely since March
of last year, although I do occasionally go to sites and review some
of the systems that we've designed – but that's not too frequent.
My focus is on excavation support system design and analysis, so
I’ll start my day checking in with staff engineers to see how they're
doing, what problems they have, what their workload looks like and
making sure they're ready to go. It's a little bit harder when we're all
separated, of course. We’ve done a pretty good job transitioning
to the virtual world, but that face-to-face communication is just
different, especially when it comes to mentoring and teaching
staff engineers. Formerly, you’d being able to go to a whiteboard in
a conference room and scribble all over it, present ideas and talk
about things in person, which was great. We have virtual tools that
can approximate that experience, but it's not the same.
What are the people like to work with at
Haley & Aldrich?
WC: I get to work with a phenomenal group of folks, and we've got
a great team dynamic. I really enjoy the mentoring and teaching
aspect of my job, but the professional development and mentoring
that I've been on the receiving end of has been great too. There are
a lot of people who I feel like I can pick their brains on anything,
whether it's a technical problem related to a project, or something
like, “I'm in a sticky client situation, how should I deal with this?”
to those more intangible and tough work-life balance types of
conversations. It’s a very supportive environment.
What does a company like Haley & Aldrich seek to get
out of a membership in the Pile Driving Contractors
Association every year?
WC: We're always interested in learning about the latest
technologies, the latest issues, anything from design to
constructability that can help us provide the best solution for any
project. I think having strong relationships with contractors and
an understanding of cost and constructability is critical, and PDCA
helps facilitate that.
Getting to an answer, a
design, or coming up with
an engineering product is
one thing, but your ability to
communicate what that is and
why it's the best idea is often
the difference between whether
the project goes ahead or not.
72 | ISSUE 2 2021 www.piledrivers.org
/www.alphapipeco.com
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