Issue 2020 Articles

Fire plays an important role in most wildland ecosystems. Vegetation often depends on fire to create a period of rebirth by removing dead materials and releasing nutrients back into the environment (Ainsworth and Doss, 1995). Across the United States, wildfires burn more than 4 million acres annually, costing Federal agencies above $768 million a year (1994-2002) in suppression alone (Butry et al., 2008).

Oliver Evans was an inventor and genius who designed mills and steam engines. The first Evans’ mill was built in the late 1700s and is often used as a convenient starting point for the First Industrial Revolution.

On July 1, 2019, Utah adopted the 2018 IBC (based on ASCE 7-16), which brought with it several very significant changes to local seismic practice. These changes, which are summarized below, are impacting geotechnical and structural engineers and their clients.

The overarching objective of the Ogden Downtown Alliance (ODA) is to bolster the city center through community engagement. The organization supports the growth of downtown Ogden by “increasing economic vitality and community vibrancy throughout Ogden’s Central Business District” (Ogden Downtown Alliance, 2018).

Achieving zero fatalities and crashes of automobiles has been a long-term but seemingly unreachable goal. Few people can imagine a complete solution, so the short-term goal has been to mitigate vehicular crashes instead.

A common image of metrics on posters and the internet is of a triangle with “Good,” “Fast,” and “Cheap” on each side and the saying “Pick Two” in the middle. The implication is that if you pursue any two of them, then the third one suffers. For example, if you want good and fast, then it costs more.

Living in a material world, as we do, means that some of the physical objects surrounding us will break or change in a manner that renders them unusable: gear teeth wear, house pipes burst, car parts corrode, plastic becomes brittle, elastic stretches, and bolts shear, to name just a few. If the consequences of failure are minor, such as a light bulb burning out or tires wearing out, they are replaced and the old parts recycled or discarded.

Around 1950, common career and business interests caused several professional societies to form the Utah Engineers Council (UEC). UEC currently consists of 18 member societies. This article focuses on the consequences of today’s driving forces.