Ep 34 - Engineering Greatness with Will Shirley + Jacob Townsend

So I didn't necessarily go the design route.

Out of college, I worked with a forensics group inside of a material testing company.

So I got to see a little bit of that material testing side during construction.

But on the forensics side, I got to do a lot of, kind of, as built construction, preservation, restoration, repair.

So got to see- The other side of it where we're working with structures that already exist, have already been built out, and probably been in service for a while, and they're just having issues, whether it's age, corrosion.

So very different, different world.

A lot more questions and a lot more unknowns.

So we get to really practice the engineering side of things, but also get to use really cool tools just to evaluate structures, understand what's there.

And that's why I've also been drawn into concrete is concrete's a very unique material.

It doesn't have the surface corrosion as much as steel or wood.

So it's really...

You gotta go take samples.

You gotta understand a lot more about it before you can begin diagnosing problems.

I like to tell people I'm a building doctor.

Go in there, do a biopsy, figure out what's wrong, come up with a diagnosis.

So it's been pretty cool.

Very different world.

There's definitely-

Yeah

... sometimes I enjoy it.

Sometimes in the summer, like right now, I was just out in the parking garage today.

I wasn't enjoying the heat [laughs] as much of working in the office, but it's fun.

Very different world, very dynamic.

Very different project set.

So it's been...