PROFILES: Q&A WITH ADAM FISCHLIN

This month, we sat down with Adam Fischlin from Rick Engineering to find out a little bit about him.

“Come out and join the YMF for the next event.

It is a great opportunity to get to know your peers and have a good time.”

Adam Fischlin, ASCE YMF Events Coordinator

Asst. Engineering Designer & Ultimate/Disc Enthusiast

Rick Engineering

San Luis Obispo, CA

ASCE: Where are you originally from and what brought you to San Luis Obispo?

Adam:  I was born and raised in Elk Grove, CA. I moved to San Luis Obispo after high school to attend Cal Poly and have lived here ever since.

ASCE: Where do you work and what kind of projects do you work on?

Adam: I am an Assistant Engineering Designer with Rick Engineering here in SLO. I have been with them for about a year now and have gotten to work on a variety of interesting projects, including Westfield West Valley Offsite intersection improvements, Shea Homes subdivision, and Valencia Library parking expansion.

ASCE: We heard that you are an officer for the new ASCE Younger Member Forum that has recently formed in San Luis Obispo; can you tell us a bit about that?

Adam: That is correct. I am the events coordinator for the YMF. The group was formed earlier this year as a way for young civil engineers to connect both socially and professionally, and to provide a bridge from the student SCE group to the local ASCE branch. For now, we have been mostly focusing on social events, but we plan to host technical and non-technical presentations and tours in the next few months.

ASCE: Why did you decide to become a Civil Engineer?

Adam: I was extremely involved in a technical engineering program at my high school and this is where I first got the idea that I might want to be an engineer. I also think I have always had an obsession for bridges, buildings, and roads and that is what lead me to pursue a degree in Civil Engineering.

ASCE: What are some of your hobbies?

Adam: Sports! I mainly like to play Ultimate Frisbee & Disc Golf, but I also am a huge sports fan (especially bay area and Sacramento teams). I have been playing Ultimate since my 4th year in college and I continue to participate in leagues in SLO and play in fun tournaments out of town. This past year I coached the Cal Poly Women’s Club Ultimate Frisbee team and I am one of the coordinators of the SLO summer league.

ASCE: Wow, sounds like you are a busy guy. Anything else?

Adam: This spring, I was the assistant coach for one of the local little league baseball teams (Go Owls!), and I have recently taken up brewing my own beer. I am currently brewing my third batch and am looking forward to starting my own recipes soon. Be on the lookout for my beer hitting shelves soon at a store near you!

ASCE: What is your favorite thing about the central coast?

Adam: Well, obviously the weather is always amazing but besides that, I love the feel of the small college town. It’s great to be able to walk to downtown SLO and grab dinner and drinks whenever I choose. 

ASCE: Anything else you would like to add?

Adam: I’d like to encourage everyone to come out and join the YMF for the next event. It is a great opportunity to get to know your peers and have a good time. More info on the next event will be coming soon. 

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

The Social Network

Over the last few months, our board has been discussing where we want to go with our newsletter, website and general messaging activities so I thought I would provide our members with an update. In recent years, many of the larger (and even a few smaller) ASCE branches have put significant resources into upgrading their websites and starting social network activities such as LinkedIn and Facebook. There also has been promotion of these activities by our national headquarters, with HQ personnel assigned to help branches out with implementing a social media policy. We have not made this a priority and chose to stick with our newsletter for information. Our newsletter has typically been a monthly publication and takes a significant amount of Board time to publish every month. A few years ago, we went from a hardcopy newsletter to the current electronic version. We keep track of the readership numbers and they are not terrible, but could be much better. In this vein, our Newsletter Editor has proposed researching and developing a blog-style website in lieu of the newsletter. The blog has many advantages, such as ease of production, access by all of the contributors and more opportunities for fresh content (don’t worry, you don’t have to be a hipster to read it). We think it will be a welcome change and will increase readership and advertising. To promote the idea, we have offered interested companies a prorated ½ year rate in the Professional Directory for July–December 2013. The newsletter will continue to be published until we get the blog up and running. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this, please give me or one of our board members a call.

If you missed our May meeting, you missed a good one. We had a fun evening out at Upper Crust Trattoria and had a great showing from the Cal Poly students, so it was truly a joint effort. 

The students did presentations on some very interesting civil design projects and we got a chance to honor their recent accomplishments. In addition, our SCE scholarships were presented. Many thanks to all who helped put the evening festivities together. Our June meeting will focus on annual awards – we have a lot of great entries this year and appreciate the Branch member support for their entries. We also have a great lineup for future meetings, and are aiming to “get around” a bit by having at least one meeting in the north county and one in Santa Maria. Finally, officer elections are just around the corner, so we hope that you will consider going for a position on our Board. Time flies when you are having fun, and I can’t believe how fast my term as President is going.

Have a great summer and don’t forget to incorporate a Civil Engineering educational experience into your vacation, I know I will!

Tom Martin, President