Interview of the Month (April-2015)
April 2015 : Hedaia Ahmad
1. Please introduce yourself:
education, background and family. My name is Hedaia Ahmad, I am currently a senior in the Illinois Institute of Technology. I will be graduating in a couple of weeks. My degree will be in Civil Engineering Specializing in Structural Engineering and Construction Management. I am currently the President of AAAEA IIT Student Chapter.
2. What activities did you have at your school recently?
AAAEA IIT Chapter has been very active this past year. Some of the events that we had this year the CAE Career Fair, Professional Resume Editing, Weekly AutoCad and Arabic Classes, Professional Startup Workshop, Taste of IIT, NASCC Steel Conference in TN, FE/PE Examination Preparation Lecture.
3. Please elaborate on the benefits of the interaction between students and professionals at AAAEA.
The benefits in my opinion would be two folds; build connections that would be useful in the future and Learn aspects of the field that only professionals would be exposed to. Since I am graduating this may, the IL Chapter helped me to connect to professionals and expand my network. Through this network I was able to meet many professionals with different backgrounds that were very interested in helping out. I am thankful for all AAAEA IL Chapter’s support and help they provided for our students.
4. What are the advantages of joining AAAEA while you are a student?
One big advantage is that you are granted the opportunity to attend the scheduled events all the professionals attend. This gives you the opportunity to network and build connections with these professionals, which could eventually lead to advances in your professional career. Also as a student you are granted massive discounts that professionals do not receive. Last but not least, as students we are granted the opportunity to be a part of more extracurricular activities outside of our university’s range, pushing us to higher standards of professionals we interact with. As a leader of AAAEA IIT Chapter and also the being the CMAA IIT President this year has tremendously expanded my leadership and team work skills. Serving the IIT community was a great experience for me and the active members that are involved in AAAEA. It really helped us to grow professionally and personally as young future engineers for our community. AAAEA is a great organization, it is my honor to serve and help this organization and make it a great resource for students and professionals in the near future. I am really looking forward to expand and promote AAAEA.
5. What do you think of having AAAEA student forum?
I believe that would offer a great opportunity to connect to the other chapters within the organization. It would make planning inter-chapter events a much smoother process as well.
6. What would you say was the best experience you've had during your time as the president of AAAEA?
If I had to choose I would say the Professional Startup Workshop 3-in-1 event where we informed students about the professional world and the tools required to attain a career in their prospective fields, we had three sessions in one day. We did a LinkedIn workshop, business card printing and a professional photo for students to have on their LinkedIn profile. These services were provided free for students and we had a professional to inform them about LinkedIn and business card tips, this event was a joint event along with CMAA, SEAOI IIT Chapters. The career fair earlier this semester was also very beneficial, we had around 15 companies and over 100 students signed up for this event. It was also a joint event with CMAA and ASCE. We are planning to make these two events part of AAAEA IIT Chapters events and I highly recommend all the AAAEA Student Chapter to do these events at their respective schools.
2015 Educational Spring Conference
2015 Educational Spring Conference
(4) Professional Development Hours
Presentation # 1:
The State of the Art in Previous Concrete
(By: Brian Lutey, VP of Sustainability and Compliance)
Presentation # 2:
Underground Detention Systems and Structural BMP Designs to Meet Local Regultions
(By: A.J. Margetis and Kevin Klein, Contech)
Presentation # 3:
Design Consideration for Rail Road Bridges
(By: Ahmad Hammad, Parsons Brinckerhoff)
Presentation # 4:
Soft Ground Tunneling, When is it a Good Design Idea
(By: Lewis Shapiro, J.D. Tunneling)
Presentation # 5:
Post-tensioned Systems for Structures
(By: Said Nour, DSI)
Presentation # 6:
IDOT Projects Formatting
The conference was a major success running from 8:30 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. AAAEA offered coffee breaks and a small breakfast, but then ended the conference with a free lunch. The conference took place at HBM Engineering Group LLC location in Hillside, IL and the cost was only $20 for members and $25 for non-members. The organizer of the event was Mohsen Issa who is the Educational Chair Board member of AAAEA-IL.
