Ep 31 - Engineering Greatness with Aakriti Khadka + Tara Cavalline

I think it's always interesting to know among so many options we have in our career in eng- within engineering, I wanted to hear what inspired you to pursue civil engineering.

I honestly, I'm not 100% sure.

A- and that sounds very odd, but I grew up in a family that did not have any engineers in it.

I had a lot of family members that were likely mechanically inclined or were, had an engineering sort of mindset, but didn't necessarily go to college.

And so I really...

Some of my high school teachers pointed out that I'd probably be okay at this type of job.

And so I applied to a universities.

I ended up at Penn State University where I did my bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering, and I have a minor in environmental engineering as well.

But really, I think my initial coursework in engineering, I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to go into civil.

I enjoyed the environmental side, which translated very nicely into concrete materials when I really started getting interested in that.

And then I had the opportunity to stay for graduate school and work on a concrete materials research project for my master's advisor, Dr. Paul Takulski, and it was a wonderful experience.

And he opened my eyes to this crazy world of concrete that we all live and work in, and also was really able to introduce me to ACI and also the opportunities and pathways and knowledge that can be gained in connections through ACI.

What inspired you?

Um, for me, I think it was quite the opposite.

It was very natural to me because my dad, he worked in the field related to civil engineering.

Also, I come from Nepal, which is a seismically active region.

Safety of the structure has, well, has, was always a topic around me.

And then there was a major earthquake in 2015.

There was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal, and after that everybody talked about safety of structures.

So I think the fear, that fear turned into a curiosity, and then it was very natural for me to pursue civil engineering.

And I think from my early days I was very interested in structures, in specifics, so that's how I think I led towards a career in structures.

No, makes sense.

I always tell my students in my classes that civil engineers, it's a great career if you wanna help people and you wanna help society.

And it sounds, given your background in Nepal and the experiences you had with sort of the natural events there and the need for the built environment to survive, these types of things really drove your choice.