COVID-19 quarantine has not altered the engineer mantra and mindset. Now, more than ever, our greater community depends on our ability to engage, remain focused, and be ready for what lies in our immediate and long-term future. Despite widespread cancellations of in-person meetings at a local and national, COPRI leadership remains focused on you and us - building our skills, connection, and practice.
Skills. Now is the perfect time to sharpen your technical skillset through new on-demand guided online courses and certificate programs, take advantage of your free continuing education courses, and become ASCE Board Certified.
Connection. Become virtually connected with your team members through our COPRI-focused social media. Updates on your ongoing projects, personnel, and company are welcome and encouraged on our LinkedIn site. Engage with your technical committees, professional chapters, and student member chapters through Collaborate.
Practice. Our technical practice areas continue to evolve, grow, and align with our COPRI strategic plan. Highlights for each group are indicated below. If something sparks your interest, please consider reaching out to our chairs for how to integrate and engage.
Our Coastal Council, led by Ken Craig, and the Coastal Engineering Research Council are focused on the October 2020 Virtual International Conference on Coastal Engineering (vICCE 2020) held completely online.
Ports & Harbors, led by Carlos Peña, have set their sights on the organization of the PORTS® '22 Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. The task and subcommittees of P&H are also busy working on several ASCE Design Standards and committee reports.
Marine Renewable Engineering, led by Bill Stewart, is in the Blue Ribbon Panel stage of their Manual of Practice to be published in 2021. They also presented an incredible session at the Vtech 2020 Conference on Offshore Wind Energy Development Challenges and Opportunities for Engineers.
Waterways, led by Dennis Lambert, is working to revitalize, strengthen, and grow the waterways technical committee through partnership with EWRI on Alternative Finance, nominating a new Dredging Subcommittee Chair (Tim Welp), and leading the effort for a special collection of Waterway-specific case studies for the Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering.
With my time as COPRI President ending, I want to take the opportunity to thank this incredible community for helping the Institute to make serious headway on our initiatives this year. We have improved COPRI's presence on social media, engaged engineers in exciting new virtual formats, and added Professional and Student Chapters across the country. I am excited about COPRI's next era, and I hope you continue to join me in being active in the Institute.
Thank you.
Lori Brownell, P.E., D.NE
COPRI President
Director, Channel Improvement
PORT HOUSTON