February 2021 President's message

Dear Fellow Engineers,

I hope this issue of the Rochester Engineer finds everyone healthy! Unfortunately, we continue to be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Both the 2021 Gala and the Engineering Symposium have been cancelled again. We will be releasing the winners of the scholarships and the RES professional engineering awards (Engineer of the Year, Engineers of Distinction, and the Young Engineer of the Year awards) in a later issue of the Rochester Engineer. We will also celebrate the scholarships and awards at the RES Annual meeting in June. We realize that the loss of the Engineering Symposium is particularly challenging for professional engineers who utilize the event to obtain professional development hours (PDHs). The Engineering Symposium has been rescheduled for April 21, 2022 (pg 23). Stay tuned, the RES is working on delivering additional virtual seminars with PDH credits in the near future in order to help those engineers that need PDHs this year.

The RES is surviving the financial impact of the pandemic, but we have struggled like many other professional societies as our events have either been postponed or cancelled for the second year in a row. We have had to reduce the hours of our administrative staff and have had to take a very conservative approach in supporting activities like we have in the past. One example is the Terra Science & Engineering Fair (pg 33). We have always supported STEM-oriented opportunities for young individuals like E3 and Terra fairs. Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor such events until our finances have stabilized. Many of the RES Board members have decided to individually sponsor the Terra event on behalf of the

RES. Please consider supporting the RES, either through membership or donation, so that we can resume to support activities that benefit the youth of our local community. I know that it is a difficult financial time period for everyone. Every membership and every donation makes an enormous difference!

All my best,

Greg Gdowski RES President

Things to read in this issue of the Rochester Engineer!

RES tutoring and the Dr. Walter Cooper Academy Food Pantry (page 7). The school has created a “wish list” registry on Amazon.

Ever wonder what the “Plain Language Act” is all about? Check out the Get to the Point article on page 8!

Holly cow! I already thought windmills were big, but what if they were 80 meters higher! A local company (Optimation Technology Inc) is helping to spearhead the effort (page 10)

Congratulation to Tomas Frys for being the 52 nd recipient of the ASCE Engineer of the Year award page 25)!

Finally, don’t forget that the first person to identify the page with 1920s artwork will receive a gift from the RES!