| American Society of Civil Engineers | |
|---|---|
| Motto | A better world by design. |
| Formation | November 5, 1852 |
| Type | Engineering Society |
| Headquarters | Reston, Virginia |
| Membership | 140,000 |
| Official languages | English |
| President | Andrew W. Herrmann, P.E., SECB, F.ASCE |
| Staff | 250 |
| Website | asce.org |
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Based in Reston, Virginia it is the oldest national engineering society in the United States.
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ASCE was founded in New York City on November 5, 1852 when twelve engineers met at the offices of the Croton Aqueduct and formed the American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects. ASCE was the first national engineering society created in the United States.[1] In 1869 the "and Architects" part was dropped from the name, after the architects formed their own society American Institute of Architects in 1857.[2]
As part of understanding the history of civil engineering and promoting the civil engineering profession, a survey of the historic accomplishments of civil engineers is continually conducted by ASCE members. Such reviews of civil engineering accomplishments have produced various lists of the notable categories and projects of the profession.
The society canvassed its members in 1999 to identify the 10 civil engineering achievements that had the greatest positive impact on life in the 20th century. They chose to recognize broad categories of achievements rather than individual projects:[3]
ASCE is the preeminent organization representing the civil engineering profession in the United States. Its mission is to "provide essential value to our members and partners, advance civil engineering, and serve the public good". ASCE strives to "facilitate the advancement of technology", "encourage and provide the tools for lifelong learning", promote professionalism, influence public policy, "develop and support civil engineer leaders", and "advocate infrastructure and environmental stewardship".[4]
ASCE is the world's largest publisher of civil engineering information — producing more than 55,000 pages of technical content each year. The ASCE Publications Division produces 31 professional journals (available both in print and online editions), conference proceedings, standards, manuals of practice, committee reports and monographs under the ASCE Press imprint. A 200,000-entry civil engineering database is available at their website, along with many other resources for practicing civil engineers including a complete publications catalog and the ASCE Online Research Library, providing access to more than 600,000 pages of journal articles and proceedings. ASCE also publishes Civil Engineering, the official magazine of the Society; ASCE News; and Geo-Strata.
ASCE's 31 peer-reviewed highly cited journals are the medium through which civil engineers exchange technical and professional knowledge. Information published in the journals forms an archival record of the technical advances of today's civil engineering profession. The complete volumes from 1990-2006 are available online.
ASCE publishes books on civil engineering research and practice. Prior to publication each title is peer-reviewed by groups of subject matter experts. The list includes more than 1,500 Standards, Manuals of Practice, Committee Reports, Proceedings, and ASCE Press titles.
Civil Engineering, ASCE's monthly magazine, contains articles about significant projects, events, and trends of interest to civil engineers. The mix of articles in each issue is designed to appeal to a broad range of readers, who represent the full spectrum of civil engineering disciplines. Other periodicals include ASCE News which reports on the activities of the Society and Geo-Strata, published on behalf of the Geo-Institute.
Each year ASCE hosts over 15 annual and specialty conferences including its annual conference. Each year, the Society holds more than 310 live, face-to-face continuing education seminars and more than 250 live Web seminars on a wide variety of technical and management topics. In addition, the Society has hundreds of distance learning programs available. ASCE offers Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and Professional Development Hours (PDHs) for conferences, seminars and workshops, and most distance learning programs to help professional engineers meet mandatory continuing professional competency requirements in their states.
ASCE offers activities supporting the formal education process of civil engineers.
ASCE also has eight full-service institutes created to serve working professionals working within specialized fields of civil engineering:
More than 6,200 civil engineers and allied professionals serve on numerous technical committees and provide other services that benefit the Society and the profession. The Society's Technical Activities Committee (TAC) has 12 Divisions and Councils, some of which are further divide into committees.[5] The 12 Divisions and Councils include the following:
ASCE is an ANSI accredited standards development organization that produces consensus standards under direction of the Codes and Standards Activities Committee. Civil Engineering Certification Inc. (CEC), affiliated with ASCE, has been established to support specialty certification academies for civil engineering specialties. The Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) provides vision and guidance on ASCE activities related to critical infrastructure resilience, including planning, design, construction, O&M, and event mitigation, response and recovery. ASCE also serves as Secretariat for The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), a non-profit partnership focused on improving the nation's built environment. Affiliated with ASCE, TISP, provides a multi-discipline security rating system for buildings and a certified professional building security credential for individuals.[6]
The ASCE raises money through the ASCE Foundation.
ASCE provides peer reviews at the request of public agencies and projects. Peer reviews are "a means to improve the management and quality of [public agency] services and thus better protect the public health and safety with which they are entrusted."[7][8] But in 2007, several complaints arose about its participation in the investigation of the failure of floodwalls and levees in New Orleans after Katrina. In response, ASCE announced the appointment of retired U.S. Rep Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to lead an independent task force of outside experts to review how the professional organization participates in engineering studies of national significance.[9] ASCE President David Mongan said the review is aimed at addressing criticisms of the organization's role in assisting the Army Corps of Engineers-sponsored investigation of Katrina failures. The results, released on September 12, 2008 recommended that the society should immediately take steps to remove the potential for conflict of interest in its participation in post-disaster engineering studies.[10]
In October 2005, after the failures of the federally designed and built levees in Greater New Orleans, Lt Gen Carl Strock P.E.,M.ASCE, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers requested that ASCE create an expert review panel (ERP) to peer review the Corps-sponsored Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET), the body commissioned by the Corps to assess the performance of the hurricane protection system in metro New Orleans. Lawrence Roth P.E.,F.ASCE, Deputy Executive Director of the ASCE led the ERP development, served as the panel's Chief of Staff and facilitated the panel's interaction with IPET.[11] The role of the ERP - composed of 14 specialists who possess a range of technical expertise - was to provide an independent technical review of the IPET's activities and findings. Roth stated at a National Research Council meeting in New Orleans, that "an independent review panel" such as the ERP "ensure[s] that the outcome is a robust, credible and defensible performance evaluation."[12] All members of the ERP panel received Outstanding Civilian Service Medals from Lt. Gen Strock on February 12, 2007.[11] The ERP's findings were released three months later on June 1, 2007 in a report entitled The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why.[13][14]
Shortly after the release of the ERP's findings, ASCE administration was criticized by The Times-Picayune for an apparent attempt to minimize and understate the role of the Army Corps in the flooding. The Times-Picayune editorial called attention to a press release issued by ASCE which accompanied the ERP report that contained information not present in the report and information that conflicted with the report.[15]
On November 5, 2007, New Orleans-based grassroots group Levees.Org released an online Public Service Announcement criticizing the ASCE's close relationship with the United States Army Corps of Engineers.[16] On November 12, 2007 the ASCE asked Levees.Org to take the video off of the internet, threatening the organization with legal action.[17] On November 13, the Times-Picayune reposted the controversial video on their website.[18]
On November 14, 2007, following the controversial video affair, the ASCE confirmed the launch of an internal ethics probe of its staff and members based on complaints[19] by University of California-Berkeley professor Dr. Raymond B. Seed, who served on a separate independent panel investigating levee failures.[17] President David Mongan, in a letter to the Times Picayune, assured the citizens of metro New Orleans that ASCE takes "this matter very seriously and that appropriate actions are being taken."[20]
On December 14, 2007, Levees.Org reposted the controversial video to the internet citing Louisiana's Anti-SLAPP statute which allows courts to weed out lawsuits designed to chill public participation on matters of public significance.[21]
In March 2008, Levees.Org announced that records obtained in a request under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that as early October 2005, the US Army Corps of Engineers directed the ASCE and later paid the group more than $1.1 million for their peer review and for giving presentations which the non-profit claimed contained at least 10 falsehoods, 4 significant omissions and numerous misrepresentations. Members of the ASCE are forbidden from making false or exaggerated statements and also from making statements for an interested party unless this is disclosed.[22]
ASCE encourages its affiliates to support state and local public and governmental affairs activities, especially through efforts by its grassroots Key Contact program. The Society's federal priority issues for the 110th Congress are clean water, drinking water and wastewater, math and science education, natural hazards mitigation and infrastructure security, Qualifications Based Selection for engineering services, smart growth/sustainable development and transportation infrastructure. The state priority issues are infrastructure issues, licensing, math and science education, procurement of professional services, smart growth, and transportation infrastructure.
The wide variety of ASCE activities outside the US support the Society's vision of positioning engineers as "global leaders building a better quality of life." ASCE works to share and grow the engineering body of knowledge among civil engineers worldwide and proactively informs engineers of the opportunities and challenges that global developments have on the practice of engineering. The Society serves approximately 14,000 members outside the US, and provides networking opportunities through ASCE International Sections and Groups, an international program at the Annual Meeting, and other events. ASCE has Agreements of Cooperation with 72 engineering organizations in 59 countries, supports 12 International Sections and 19 International Groups, and participates in a variety of international engineering organizations. International activities span numerous ASCE program areas, including the Institutes and technical committees, who hold international conferences and technical sessions. About half the contributions to ASCE journals come from overseas authors, and half of publication sales are to engineers living outside the US.
ASCE sponsors numerous awards for outstanding work in various areas of civil engineering, some of which are based on papers submitted to its many journals. ASCE also designates national and international Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks.
In an effort to recognize a contemporary equivalent to the heralded ancient Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World, the ASCE has designated the following Seven Wonders of the Modern World:[23]
ASCE holds an annual black-tie event to present the Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Awards. Four different awards are presented there: the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award, the Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research, and the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation.
The Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA) has been presented annually since 1960. It honors the project that best illustrates superior civil engineering skills and represents a significant contribution to civil engineering progress and society.[24] As a project award, it recognizes the team effort of all the engineers involved in completion of the project.
The Lifetime Achievement Award has been presented annually since 1999. It recognizes a lifetime of achievements and accomplishments to five different individual leaders. One award is present in each category of design, construction, government, education, and management.[25]
Initially created in 1968 by ASCE's Sanitary Engineering Division, the award is named after former ASCE President Wesley W. Horner. The award is given to a recently peer reviewed published paper in the fields of hydrology, urban drainage, or sewerage. Special consideration is given to private practice engineering work that is recognized as a valuable contribution to the field of environmental engineering.[26]