Building resilience: the future of infrastructure in a changing climate
51:22 Share

Welcome to today's episode of Lexicon. I'm Christopher McFadden, contributing writer for Interesting Engineering. Today we sit down with Dr. Fenioski Penamora, Executive Vice President of Research at Tecnologico de Monterey and newly appointed President of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Join us as we explore how his vision for resilient infrastructure, rooted in sustainability, equity, and mental health, is shaping the future of engineering in an era marked by climate challenges and natural disasters. But before getting into today's episode, make sure to check out our latest merch at Interesting Engineering Shop. Engineer your style with our t-shirts, mugs, and discover new products. Now let's continue with today's episode.

Grabbo is more than just a tool. It's a game changer in material handling technology. Featuring revolutionary patented vacuum technology, this handheld tool securely grips almost any material, making it easy to lift, move, and install heavy items like glass, stone, wood, outdoor pavers, and more. Developed by mechanical engineer Nemo Rodem, the Grabbo is the first handheld vacuum tool transforming how professionals work. Lightweight, portable, and easy to use.

Okay, Dr. Fenioski, thanks for joining us. How are you today?

Good. Thank you, Chris, for inviting me. I really appreciate it. Our pleasure. For our audience's benefit, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, please? My name is Peniosky Peña Mora. I'm the Executive Vice President for Research, as well as the Dean of Engineering and Sciences for TechMonterey in Mexico. I'm also the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers,

I have been Dean of Engineering at Columbia University, Associate Provost at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction in New York City.

Okay, many hats you're wearing there. Impressive. Yes, yes. Many hats at different times in my life. So I have had a very rich and productive professional experience. That's good to hear. Very enjoyable. Very good. Well, congratulations on your appointment as the ASCE president. What are your key priorities for 2024 to 2025?

Well, my key priorities is to really focus on sustainability, resiliency, equity, and mental health. I believe that these are very important for our profession as well as society. From a sustainability perspective, it's at the core of our profession. It is our responsibility to design and build infrastructure that meets today's needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

As of a CD&C, we have seen some of the disasters.

Milton, Helene, as well as wildfires in the north of the country in the United States. As the world is increasingly impacted by climate change, natural disasters, and other challenges, our infrastructure must withstand and recover from adverse events. So building resilience into our projects ensures that communities not only survive but thrive.

even in the face of adversity. And from the equity perspective, it's fundamental to create a just and inclusive society. Our work as civil engineers impacts every aspect of life, from access to clean water and transportation to safe housing and public spaces. So we must ensure that our infrastructure serves all communities equally.

addressing disparities, and providing equal opportunities for everyone. So from the perspective of mental health, that's another key priority of mine. We have seen a lot of the reports from the perspective of the construction industry, how it has affected a lot of our construction workers and our professionals. So it's important that we talk about it and ensure that we provide the support

for all our professionals and construction workers to be able to participate in our industry and be able to do it in a way that does not affect their well-being. So those are some of the key areas that I'm emphasizing during my year as a president. Okay. On your plate then. So

Digging into the weeds a bit, you mentioned the importance of resilient infrastructure, especially with recent disasters, hurricanes and things. So which specific innovations do you believe will be crucial to improving resilience, infrastructure resilience?

Well, as we have seen, some of the disasters, the latest from the hurricanes, Hilton, you know, have highlighted an urgent need for resilient solutions. And I believe that specific innovations that would be essential to streamline resilience have to really take consideration how to build better to resist these disasters.

disasters, these events that are happening. Like for example, this includes research into resiliency, into our design and our buildings and our infrastructure. And from the AAC perspective, it's also how to convert these new innovations into standards that provide foundational guidelines to enhance resiliency.

by setting criterias for the structures that are facing natural hazards. But we have to really involve all these with smart infrastructure systems that allows for sensors in real time monitoring of our infrastructure, as well as to increase

our use of innovative materials to support the resiliency of our infrastructure. For example, in NACE, we tried to incorporate the latest data

available in terms of the natural environment that may affect our ability to withstand some of the disasters. As this may include, like we have a code of standards like ASE 7 that looks at what are the rules for

that our buildings and infrastructure should support, including the flood loads that some of our infrastructure will be subject to, as well as we have also

Our standards for climate change, how to combat or be resilient to climate change. So those are some of the things that I think are important for us to be thinking about it as we are building and designing infrastructure.

So does the ASCE have any influence over building codes or building regulations in America? Yes. Yeah, we are through a system of involving all the different stakeholders for participating in those discussions of what is needed, what is the latest data. We provide the standards that are used by communities to...

provide the guides to the constructors, the designers on how to build. For example, our ASC 7 include now a flood load supplement as well as our ASC 24 that looks at climate change and

And the latest standard that we have introduced is one called ASE73 that looks at resiliency in infrastructure. And look at from different perspective of how to take sustainability leadership, how to look at greenhouse gas emissions, and how they use life cycle cost analysis

to really understand the impact of the work that we're going to be doing. Hey, Will Riker. So how can engineering practices better adapt to increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters? Well,

This goes back to your earlier questions in terms of what are the use of these standards. And I think engineering practice must adapt to the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters driven by climate change. These adaptations require forward-looking strategies and the adoption of adaptive design principles.

For example, the American Society of Civil Engineers Policy Statement 360 on Climate Change advocates for these approaches urging the integration of adaptive infrastructure goals and standards.

As well as our policy statement 488 on greenhouse gases, which focuses on mitigation, we have to look at this from two perspectives. One is mitigation and the other one is building the resiliency.

For example, in our ASE 24 for flood resistance, we highlighted the environmental stresses that we face and provide guidelines that are essential to building climate resilience at the core.

of infrastructure planning. And we have worked with a lot of different agencies in the United States for these types of standards and code. For example, with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that provides the data that are used for flood control,

and particularly for flood maps, the core three young research and engineering laboratory, because we asked to remember, we have to look at this type of disaster or climate events

Not only from one perspective, but we have to look at from the seismic perspective, earthquake, from the wind perspective, from the tornado perspective, from snow and ice, flood, tsunami, fire, wildfire, and look at how we will address all those different components.

I mean, building regulations have been around, I presume, similar amount of time as they have in the UK and America. It surprises me how much damage is caused by natural disasters. And they should be used to them, right?

Yeah, that's a very interesting question and observation. And the challenges that you face is that it depends on the regulatory framework that is used. In some countries, you have like a national framework for bidding codes. In other countries, it's actually left to the municipalities. The different municipalities can...

can decide, depending on the context, their communities, what kind of regulations they will use. And sometimes, you know, depending on which one they use and which one they select, there may be vulnerability. Again, time changes, and

We have seen the increase on the intensity of some of these events and the frequency of those events. So how quickly these municipalities change and adapt new codes becomes very, very important. In addition to that, we also have to look, there have been

number of interesting articles looking at this issue of the economic impact of these events and there is a combination. There is of course the area of resiliency and how we can create

are more resilient using codes and standards for building and constructing and designing. But there is also that we as humans have been drawn to certain areas that have

different kind of attractiveness, and those areas may be prone to certain types of disasters or events. And when you create more development, there is more investment, both on the number of people that are there as well as

the infrastructure, the businesses that develop in those areas. When an incident occurs, a hurricane, earthquake, there is a lot more to be affected. But there are some examples of situations

in which you have made or communities have made the investment to really reduce those types of effects of these climate events or these disasters. And they have proven to be successful. I suppose it ultimately comes down to cost. I suppose you could, in theory, design a bridge that could never collapse, but it would be so expensive.

And this is the challenges that you always, you know, there is everything in a trade-off in life. And you have to really look at what is the cost of not doing what you're supposed to do. And is that a cost that you're willing to leave? And if we continue to invest in cities or in communities that are in locations that are

subject to certain types of events, I think we have to decide if we are going to invest in doing those developments and having more people or increasing the population. What kind of investments we have to make to protect at the end of the day our lives that we are talking about it. And so we have to really

weight those circumstances when making the decisions. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, one good example is the improved levee system in New Orleans, resilience. So are there any other cities or regions that you see as models for resilient infrastructure? Yeah,

That's actually very interesting. Again, there is a report that according to NIIBS report that for every dollar you spend on upfront flood mitigation, that lead to an average benefit of $6 for states, localities, and business. So some localities, some states have been investing $6

significantly on how to protect and upgrade their infrastructure. Like you mentioned in your audience, they have been a significant investment after Hurricane Katrina. And there are other locations, for example, Houston,

have invested significantly after being affected on preparing against disasters with different success. Rotterdam, Tokyo, Singapore, they have become models of resilient infrastructure to comprehensive management

systems and for example Rotterdam with water classes and flood barriers you know how to manage a

And so those are some of the samples we can see that have made the investment. And, you know, they understand that they have communities, businesses, cultural heritage that they need to protect. And these investments are critical for their continued success as a city.

Japan's a good example. They're, well, earthquake resilient design designs are impressive. Incredible.

Yeah, yeah. And we have seen, like, for example, California having investing significantly in retrofitting. And this is the part I think that is quite important to understand, that we have certain infrastructure buildings that are cultural, meaningful, culturally meaningful, that we cannot just go and say, well, we're going to tear it down and reveal something new. We need to

So we have to invest in retrofitting some of those infrastructures and buildings that really have some historical and cultural significance. And so it's not only applying the codes, the standards, the standards of practice that provides, you know, the latest information to be used for creating a more resilient and sustainable environment.

but also to be able to safeguard some of our cultural heritage by investing on the retrofitting against different types of natural disasters. Absolutely, yeah. It's critical, especially in Europe. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I completely agree. There's some other nations like Turkey, they're not so bothered about cultural buildings. They'll happily tear them down.

You have to understand the local context and again, how you encourage and support that we have to protect where we come from to really understand where we're going. So I think it's really good to protect our history and our cultural heritage in order to

to avoid repeating some of the challenges and issues of the past in order to build a better future. That's good to hear. Looking forward then, how do you envisage the role of civil engineers evolving in the face of climate change challenges? Well, I think this is a very important question and we have to look at the role of civil engineers that is evolving significantly in response to climate challenges.

you know, platforming not only from the technical components, but also as a strategic advisors who bridge, you know, climate science, societal needs and leading expertise.

I can tell you that as an executive vice president of research at Tecmo TV here in Mexico, we have really supported that shift with our commitment to research and interdisciplinary collaboration, developing solutions that are not only technically sound but socially equitable and sustainable. Because engineers today must advocate for resilience-focused policies,

and avoiding long-term environmental impacts, increasing partnering, partnership with environmental scientists, economists, policy makers to ensure that solutions can actually have the intended effect of protecting us for the future.

Yeah, quite agree. And at that point, we'll just take a short break and we'll be back. Engineered for precision, Grabbo is revolutionizing lifting and installation. With advanced vacuum technology, it grips securely onto any surface from rough stone to smooth glass. The Grabbo tool pulls powerful suction at 20 liters per minute with a closed cell foam gasket to grip securely onto any surface. With its pan design, it's the world's first and only handheld tool that delivers unmatched lifting capabilities.

while ensuring safety and efficiency on every job site. For contractors, engineers, and craftsmen, Grabo is the tool revolutionizing the industry. Discover advanced engineering at grabo.com.

Welcome back. Right, where were we? So what role does technology play in making infrastructure more resilient? And are there emerging technologies you're particularly excited about? I think technology is a cornerstone for resiliency efforts. And of course, I line closely with ACE standards in case that

you know, as we bring new technology, we have to understand the best science and the best information that we have available and how to integrate these innovative tools and technologies in terms of new materials. There is now a lot of focus of artificial intelligence.

And how do we use artificial intelligence-driven predictive models for risk assessments, as well as looking at recovery efforts, how we can support it. So we have to always look at the prevention

as well as the response when a disaster occurs, how we respond, safeguard the infrastructure, the buildings that we have, but most importantly, how to rescue the people that may be stranded or are under situations that need

support. But at the end, after we do this, how do we learn from this and build back better? How do we actually take all that knowledge, the latest information, and be able to design for the future? So I would say the new materials,

that support resiliency and sustainability because these two elements have to go together. And we also have to bring the aesthetics. You know, a lot of times when we think about resiliency, the first image that comes to our mind is of a fortress. You know, we understand that a fortress is secure. But a fortress also sends messages. And what messages? It's like

Keep out, you know, if you are outside. And if you are inside, don't leave because here you're secure. We have to ensure that when we bring technology, we bring standards, we build policies, we look at it from a holistic perspective. At the end of the day, we as human beings are social beings. We like to interact and we actually gain from that interaction, that community, that collaboration.

So all these solutions have to be implemented in a way that still support social cohesion and are done in an equitable manner so that everybody is safe, everybody's protected, but without becoming a situation that the us versus them and the separation among communities. And we have seen how

In the past, some of those solutions have divided communities, have separated. And those are investments on some infrastructures. We have seen how certain infrastructure like the south of the track or the north of the track, they're two different communities. We create highways and elevated highways that separate the costables, the waterfront area of a city

from the rest of the city, like in Boston, and how they have been investment to ensure that those solutions are done in a way that integrate, like for example, in Boston, the central artery that depressed the viaduct highway that was dividing the

a waterfront from the rest of postal is to create that social cohesion. Like for example, the work while the projects that I work when I was a commissioner of the Department of Design Construction in New York City, where the east side cost a resiliency project that was an insult of

creating protection for the east side of Manhattan after a hurricane or superstorm Sandy hit New York City in 2012.

At that time, a lot of ideas came on how can we protect not only against a flood from an event like a hurricane, but also for the events that we are seeing with climate change in terms of sea level rising. And so we needed to create and invest on infrastructure that would support. So I can think, oh, we're just going to create a dam

a wall that it will protect the city. But can you imagine walling New York City? That definitely would not go well. So how do you create solutions

Bring technology that allows for an easy transition that brings natural solutions like berms that provide an asset to the community like parks, areas of socializing, recreation, cultural activities.

you know, exchange and manifestation and joy, but at the same time protect. We have seen that also in Seoul, South Korea, where an investment for flood control and water kind of drainage has been used to create an area that is an amenities when there is no disaster. So how do we create and invest and bring technology

with the perspective of sustainability, resiliency, as well as social and cultural cohesion. Okay. I think another kind of overlooked aspect of any building, especially civil engineering, is its beauty as well. I haven't seen a beautiful new building for a very long time. I know there's cost associated with that and its form of a function really, but yeah, it's

Any time that I'll be coming back, that'd be great. If you could talk to your engineer friends.

Well, remember, we also have to talk to our architects' friends. It's a team effort. You have the architect, the engineers, the contractors. We all have to work together, of course, with the owners. So it's a whole ecosystem that have to work together to achieve those goals. From what I've heard, though, it's the architect has a design. Obviously, the engineer has to make it work.

I think they probably have more influence than they let slip. Thank you for saying that. Anyway, moving on. Can you share your insights on how international collaboration, my engineers, can contribute to global resilience efforts, please? Yeah, I think this is a very important question of great value in terms of innovation.

The solutions that we have to come up and the interventions that we have to do are not limited to only one local, one city, one community. It is something that we have to look at globally. And international collaborations on exchanging of that knowledge of what happened, how it happened, is critical for us to develop

new standards, new practices that really incorporate the latest information. And I can tell you that from the ASEE perspective, we have had a lot of different collaborations with different organizations that we work very closely together. Like for example,

with the ASE 73 new standard that takes into the resilient infrastructure. We collaborated with multiple stakeholders, and this standard has now been recommended by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, as well as the Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council and the Union, the Pan American Union,

of associations of engineering in Latin America. So at the end of the day, you need to bring all those because what happened in one place is something that we need to understand to be able to avoid happening in another place with similar conditions.

And, for example, there has been a lot of work when there is a disaster. AAC has deployed a team of experts to be able to understand the situation, understand what happened, how it happened, and what can we learn from that.

And I can tell you that from my perspective here as an academic in the Tech de Monterrey, we feel the same way on the research component, on how we come up with the new ideas, the new innovations that will affect the practice of tomorrow. You know, participating in joint research projects with international partners.

all over the world, you know, in all the continents and how to do that to accelerate innovation in resilient materials and design methods and as well as the training, the exchange of students to see different perspectives, to learn from each other.

and to prepare them to become leaders in the field and be equipped to tackle those complex challenges that we are seeing on the global scale. So we feel that it's very important that we participate on that. Let me give you a couple of examples. For example, in the Tec de Monterrey, we are participating with researchers in the Latin American flood mitigation project.

for how to introduce innovation for urban resiliency and sustainability, which we have researchers from the Technum of the Day as well as other Latin American universities. And as I mentioned,

To you, we have research on new materials, nanotechnology that can be deployed to make structures more resilient. We have collaboration with universities in the United States.

the Europe, Asia, and Latin America. So these collaborations are critically important because as we work together, we can promote cost-effective. You mentioned earlier in the podcast the issue of cost, and I mentioned to you our importance to evaluate cost against loss. But

But those are important when we have to look at lifecycle costing. It's not only the cost of construction, but the value that you receive and the benefits that you receive from this infrastructure and the protection to your communities. How to provide resilient designs and assist other served regions in preparing for climate risk.

We want to avoid climate refugees. We have to invest in the infrastructure needed for the protection of these communities that are so badly needed. That all makes sense. So all countries are obviously equal. So with countries with limited resources, how should they prioritize building resilient infrastructure without bankrupting themselves, basically? Yeah.

What can they do about it? Yeah, this is, again, that sometimes seems to be kind of the crux of the matter. You know, what do you do? I think we, the world, have a responsibility. The same way that we have invested in supporting, you know, communities that are disadvantaged economically.

in different aspects. And some of them is the support that we provide in investing in infrastructure.

You know, we have the different financing organizations that support the investment on infrastructure in different countries with economic disadvantage. And we need to ensure that those investments are done in a way that meet the sustainability and resiliency goals that we expect.

which we ensure that in the analysis, the design, the feasibility studies, we're looking how to support. So Huawei is, when there is a loan from one of the multi-nations organizations that support the building infrastructure, resilience and sustainability is part of the question for calculating.

There is also some other support that has been generated, like the Green Climate Fund that supports certain initiatives for communities. So at the end of the day, we need to ensure that whatever we do, whatever investment we make,

We are ensuring that they meet the requirements that are respected for sustainability and resiliency and ensure that they are done in the best possible way. And I know there is a lot of challenges, but we need to, with whatever we are able to harness in terms of investments and be able to

attract, let's ensure that those are part of the conversation. And spent effectively as well. Yeah. That is a little bit of a different question. I think

There are responsibilities of the institutions letting the money that to ensure that they go to the right. You know, because there is a lot of questions sometimes, you know, and sometimes we are asked as engineers, you know, that we need to do the project right. You know, we have to do it. But the question is, are we doing the right project? Are we doing the project that the communities need? Are we doing the project with the

conditions that are important for the communities, not only today, but for tomorrow. And I think we have to ask those questions and help people accountable and ensure that our investments go, as you say, the long way and are spent efficiently in what they are supposed to be spent. That's right. Especially the case, well, from my point of view, from the UK, where

process for planning and things is so ridiculous it can be so expensive just to even get a project started and some infrastructure like this especially you need it for resilience never gets started or you own half the budget already on no offense on engineers and designs and things before it even shovels hit the ground you know

I think that's a very good question. You have been watching a lot of the hot buttons that we have in our industry is the whole issue of procurement regulations. And, you know, they have been a lot of talk

over the years on how to streamline the process and some particular school of thoughts think of certain way and it's like remove all the regulations, remove all the requirements, just let it build. Others say it's like we have to be careful on what we build and how we build.

And so what happens in those discussions is that the pendulum swings either to one side or to another side, and we should always be looking at the equilibrium. How do we do the project right, but also how do we do the right project? How do we ensure that we meet the requirements that are necessary to protect, particularly when we're talking about resiliency projects?

to the communities and how we do it that adds value, but in an efficient manner, as you mentioned earlier, in terms of investment. And so what is that happy medium that allows the project to be done right expeditiously? And I think that's the key question. And what I have found from my experience in government

is that a lot of times it happens that somebody did something wrong at a particular point. So you actually added a step of supervision, a step of regulation, added another layer.

And then things go on and that layer stay there. And then somebody does something also and another layer is added. Sometimes I call that like an onion because it's just layers and it makes you cry. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing what we could do like a hundred years ago, 200 years ago, especially Victorian Britain. Infrastructure they down is still, I know it's not like America with natural disasters, but.

Those buildings are still there, this infrastructure is still functioning, still beautiful, still works. Try and do that today. It's not happening. But look, look at what happened to Notre Dame with fire. So you're not exempt from disasters and...

So we have to be all careful, but I would say that the new, you know, restoration that happened, the new rebuild, we have the best thinking and the best regulation and standards possible to avoid something as much as you can avoid. You know, some disaster, you can never avoid it. You can never avoid it.

You can just see how you can allow the response to occur to avoid the destruction or the reduction of functionality. But we all have our challenges. Maybe different, but we all have our challenges. Fair enough. So looking ahead, what key infrastructure projects should the US and other countries prioritize to ensure long-term resilience in your view?

From their perspective, you know, we were talking to some of them. I believe that upgrading the transportation system is incredibly important. Both, and here again, there are a lot of different conversations, you know, public versus private transportation. The reality is that we need it all. There has to be a lot of emphasis on public transportation, sometimes called mass transportation.

But we also have to support, you know, biking, walking, you know, all the different modes of transportation have to be supported and how to do a resiliency. Because as you may have seen in Milton, the hurricane that hit Florida just a couple of weeks ago, you know, when the order for evacuation was given,

you know, the roads were clogged. And so how do you create not only the physical infrastructure, but also the logistics of the use of that transportation system?

Another key one is the energy grids. Now we have become so dependent on everything, electricity. You know, we are moving all the, a lot of countries are putting a lot of regulations and a lot of policies and a lot of incentives to go all electric. How are we protecting our energy grids? I can tell you that some of our energy grids,

have a lot of challenges that we all have to be concerned about it and invest to ensure that are able to withstand and when they are affected are able to quickly recover and we have to do that. We also have to support a green stormwater management systems

and how we can manage more effectively our stormwater and how we can do some of that with types of natural systems. Where a lot of cities sat, there were green fields there that

you know, nature had its way to move around and now we have concrete, we have pavement. So how do you do it? How to do also drought resistant water infrastructure. We are seeing with climate change, there is a lot of drought and how are we be able to create infrastructure that is avoid waste and really conserve water. And of

Of course, in this issue of our energy grids, it's the source of that energy. We're looking at renewable energy and how we're integrating all those types of energy. So those are very important that we have to look. Like, for example, in ASE, we embarked several years ago

on our exercise to look at the future. And we created an initiative called Future World Vision that was looking ahead 50 years. We started around 2020. That look ahead at what the world will be at 2070.

how will we have different types of cities, you know, cities that will be like a mega-city with populations that are increasing. How are we going to have

Floating cities, as we are moving closer to the water and how we are ensuring that we are able to address climate changes as well as sea level rising. How we are able to look at new materials, you mentioned procurement, how we are able to create

more efficient procurements. But the whole idea is not just to envision that future, but to be able to influence it. What do we need to do today to ensure that we have the future that we wanted to know? That was the key component. Just a thought. As you see things like Hyperloop or flying cars, things like that. Yeah.

We should send you a link to our movie on that issue. Oh, the flying car and all that. Because that is. But how do we avoid replicating the challenges of the past? You know, we created these transportation systems and the grid and how people will move from point A to point B. Are we going to just replicate that in the air for creating the flying cars with autonomous vehicles? Or

Or should we rethink that differently in a way that we kind of free ourselves from some of those constraints that we had in the past, technology or knowledge? And now we have different knowledge, how we create these type of technologies.

Aerial highways that are more efficient, cars can travel closer together, are able to actually be safer, more efficiency in terms of the use of energy or fuel. And I think we have an opportunity, but we have to start designing the future today.

That's a fair point, actually. Yeah, you want to replicate, yeah, reinvent the wheel with a problem, really. Yeah. Yeah. Just a hurricane, flying cars are going to be like the worst option. Okay, last question. What message would you like to share with civil engineering students and young professionals as they prepare to tackle future challenges?

I think the future is bright, first of all. I know that sometimes we hear a lot of doom and that, you know, the dark clouds are here. There's no future and we see a lot of our youth to be quite stressed about the future, you know, the issue of climate change. And are we going to have a

a planet to live on and what are some of those and what are we doing today? But the future is bright because we have Dell, we have you, the students, the early career professionals that are concerned about these challenges and are willing to make a statement to do the work to make a brighter future. And so the challenge and the opportunity

are how we make our concerns into action, how we make our statements, our positions, and make it actionable. And this is the component of how we can go on and take advantage of this transformative time in the engineering field with tremendous responsibility to address climate change and resilience.

how to be informed of what is the latest information and technology that can be used, how can we include that technology and information and codify into standards, codes, mathematical practices that

everybody can use it. You know, not everybody has to reinvent the wheel. They can actually implement that best knowledge possible. And as future leaders, our students, our early professionals, to embrace the complexities of our profession. Build a strong foundation in technical expertise and prioritize

ethical solutions that align with our standards and our values. You mentioned some cases in certain communities, you know, the unethical use of our resources that are intentioned for a particular use and are used differently. That's why our students and our early careers have to always have

that North Star, that value system that at the end of the day, they're working for a community that they deserve our professionalism and our best of all. So we have to be always tuned and committed to bringing innovation

to support resiliency and how to shape a future that emphasizes public safety, sustainability, and equity, and how to ensure that it supports as well not only the physical health but also the mental health of all our members of the community. So I think the future is bright.

And I'm very, very optimistic that our students and any professionals have what it takes, have the commitment, and have the drive, and they will make our future much better than what sometimes we hear. Yeah, yeah. Give me three more. Yeah, Adam.

Is there anything else you'd like to add before we go? No, I just want to, Chris, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you, to share some of our perspective. Again, as you mentioned, I have had different roles. I have been in different parts of our industry as an academic. I'm now here in Tecmo, Tevay, as a dean of engineering, as an executive vice president of research.

in the area back at LB4 and Columbia University as a professor and as dean of engineering and the University of Illinois as associate provost and as a professor, but also in the industry and the government as a consultant for several projects as well as for

and be a government as a commission of the family design structure. You know, I understand sometimes there are challenges, there are frustrations, but we should always have that focus on what we want to do and what is the best, the best for our community. That should be our guiding principle and how to guide our community.

our mind and actions to achieve what is best for our communities. Thank you for your time, Senioski. That was very, very interesting. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. All the best. Have a wonderful evening. You too. Thank you. That concludes this episode of Lexicon. Thank you all for tuning in and being our guest today. Follow our social media channels for later science and technology news. Also, don't forget to explore our IE shop. Goodbye for now. Bye.