(upbeat music)

- Hello, and thank you for tuning in

to Connections & Directions.

A University of Michigan's

Civil and Environmental
Engineering podcast.

My name is Michelle Santillan

and I am the CEE Marketing
Communications Specialist

and host of this series.

During our podcast, we
are featuring members

of our CEE community and how
their work reflects our mission

of engineers and service to society.

We will be highlighting
our strategic directions

and our commitment to diversity,
equity, and inclusion.

CES's five strategic directions

are human habitat experience,
shaping resource flows,

adaptation, automation, and
smart infrastructure finance.

I'm here today with Justin Roelofs,

a CEE engineering technician.

Welcome Justin, and
thank you for joining us.

- Oh, thanks for having me.

- How long have you worked
at the University of Michigan

and specifically in CEE?

- Let's see.

I've worked in CEE for
almost three and a half years

and I worked for one year

in the Department of
Psychology before that.

That's my entire time here at U of M

although many, many years
ago, I was a student here

so some more time there.

- And what did you study
here when you attended?

- I studied Naval Architecture
and Marine engineering.

Got my bachelor's degree in 2006

and then went and worked
as a naval architect

for maybe seven or eight years I think.

- Okay. And what is your
current role in the department?

- I am one of the engineering technicians

in the Structures lab.

So there are three of us.

There's me, there's Ethan Kennedy,

and there's Steve DonajKowski.

So I kind of specialize in
construction and fabrication

and welding, building things
out of wood, metal, plastic.

Ethan is an expert in electronics.

He is also extremely good
at computer programming

so he helps a lot of groups
with data acquisition,

data processing, setting up controllers

and things like that.

And Steve's a master machinist
so he can make custom parts

that people would not be
able to otherwise obtain.

So between us, we can cover a lot

of needs for professors,
researchers, students.

- Okay.

And given the description of what you said

I know you said welding
was one of the items

that you do in a given day,

how do those activities
fit into the larger picture

of what goes on in CEE
on a day-to-day basis?

- We really are there to support
the physical testing aspect

of civil engineering research.

When it comes to students,
we help with laboratory,

with the labs they do for their classes.

So there are geotech labs
where they do soil analysis,

there are concrete labs,
there are hydro labs.

So we help with that.

And then on the research side,

which forms most of the work we do,

we build prototype
apparatus for professors,

for grad students and even
sometimes for undergrads.

We help with their projects as well

to help them do their research
because they wanna do things

that haven't been done before.

You can't go to Home Depot
and buy the things they need,

so we can make that for 'em, custom.

- How do you see yourself participating

in CEE strategic directions?

- So, that on a day-to-day basis

feels a little abstract to me.

I'm not usually thinking about
the strategic directions.

That would be the research
people would be doing

in their different disciplines.

But since I do provide
assistance and support

to all the different researchers

who need physical test apparatus made,

I guess in a certain sense,

I participate in all of
those different directions.

- And how does CEE's mission

of engineers in service to
society resonate with you?

- Well, I really like the sound of it.

I suppose everyone wants to think

that the work they're doing
is somehow serving society.

I definitely do like to think

that what's done in civil engineering

is in service to society.

You can do your job and not
think it's serving any purpose

and that's pretty sad, but if,

I mean, if you're paying the
bills, you have to do it.

But if you can go to work and
pay your bills and also think

that you're doing something
that is in service society,

well, that's an additional motivator.

It makes me feel good
about what I'm doing.

So yeah, I do like the sound of that.

It does resonate with me

and I really hope that's what's going on.

- And how do you see DEI
incorporated in the department?

Not necessarily specific to a single class

or a research area, but as a whole.

- Within the context of what I do,

I would say that our department feels

quite cosmopolitan to me because we are,

on a daily basis, working
with professors, students,

researchers from all around
the world, China, Ethiopia.

They're all coming through the department,

they need things made, so we
get to work with all of them.

And it's a pleasure to do so

'cause you get to learn
a little bit about them

and their country that they came from.

So there's a lot of diversity
in civil engineering

and I really appreciate that

because it's just a nice
feeling to get to meet

all kinds of different people

and learn a little bit about them.

- And you mentioned that you had majored

in naval architecture.

I understand you have a hobby
that might lend itself well

to that particular theme.

Could you talk a little bit about that?

- To which theme?

- To naval architecture
and boats in particular.

- Oh, well, I've been crazy
about boats my whole life.

Naval architecture was a
pretty natural fit for me.

My hobby with boats, well, we
just bought an old sailboat

so we're restoring that right now.

In the past I've built a
couple of wooden boats,

a motorboat, a rowboat.

And the relevance, I guess,
to civil engineering is,

all the work I've done
building those things,

I've been able to bring a
lot of that knowledge to bear

in terms of making projects for people.

Because if someone
wants to build something

that's in odd shape and they
need to submerge it in water,

I've been able to build things out of wood

that can be submerged in water.

I have a good understanding
of what metals you can combine

and not combine and have
them rust or not rust

and survive in the marine environment.

I have an ever-growing catalog in my mind

of all the products that
are out there on the market

for building boats and
building things in general

which goes easily back and forth.

The materials and products I know about

from doing my projects.

I also do a lot of remodeling
and stuff like that.

I know about these products,
so when someone says,

"Can we build this thing
that does this or that

and should we build it out of this?"

I can say, "Well there's
already a product that exists

that's like this.

I just happen to know about
it cause I've used it.

There's already hardware that does that.

I've used it before."

It's actually really valuable

because it helps me help our customers

go from napkin sketch to
final product more easily

because I know about a
lot of these products.

It's not just me, the other technicians

have this knowledge as
well in their areas.

So we can use that knowledge

to help them quickly refine their design

where maybe in their mind,

they're not really sure what to use,

so they're just indicating with generic...

On their design though, it'll
just be something generic.

Well, we can specifically
suggest a product

because I know about things

that are used in the marine environment.

We know about all kinds
of different products

and we can we can suggest
those things to our customers

and our researchers and
help them out that way.

It's quite valuable to
be able to take a hobby

that I'm passionate about already

and have spent a lot of
money and time investing into

and then use that knowledge

to help our customers
in civil engineering.

It's definitely helped me a lot.

- It sounds like a win-win
situation really, so-

- Yeah, I think so.

- What do you find most
enjoyable about your job?

- About my job on a daily
basis, I would say the variety.

The projects are always new things.

It's not production work

where you're doing the same
thing over and over again.

It's always someone with a
new idea they want to try out.

And that variety is really great

because you don't get bored.

So you complete a project and
you're satisfied with that

and then you get to go
on to try something new.

So you get to research new things,

you get to try new products,

you get to design something new.

So I really enjoy the variety.

(coughs) Excuse me.

But another thing I
really enjoy about the job

is working with the students.

That's very enjoyable
because they're young

and they're enthusiastic and
the world is their oyster,

so they haven't had time
to get bored or cynical.

They're still striving toward their goals.

So it's really enjoyable
to help them succeed

and see their enthusiasm, and it rubs off.

That's another great aspect about it.

- Is there anything else
you would like to add?

- Nothing I can think of right now

but thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you for joining us today.

(upbeat music)

Thank you for listening to
our podcast conversation.

For more information
about CEE at Michigan,

please visit our website at cee.umich.edu.

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