ASCE has honored Beena D. Ajmera, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, and Kapiolani M. Street, P.E., M.ASCE, with the 2022 Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement for their professional achievement in service to the advancement of the profession, evidence of technical competence, high character and integrity, and contributions to public service outside their career.
Ajmera has provided extensive leadership through service commitments such as being the Geo-Institute Liaison to the Younger Member Presidential Group of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. She is an active member of the Student Awards Committee for the International Consortium on Landslides, ASCE Geo-Institute’s Embankments, Dams & Slopes Committee, the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) Oversight Committee (NOC) for the Council for Undergraduate Research, etc. She has also provided meaningful contributions through her leadership on the Student Participation Committee of the ASCE Geo-Institute, where she is currently the Co-Director for the National GeoWall Competition and previously served as the Co-Director of the Annual GeoShirt Design Competition. As an instructor, Ajmera has been named an Inspiring Teacher by the Office of Teaching and Learning at North Dakota State University and received an Inspiring Colleague Award by the same group. She receives high student evaluations for all her courses and from mentor students at all levels.
Street is not only a construction manager for several Castle & Cooke Home Hawaii Inc. projects, but is also working toward managing the planning of all of the company’s civil projects. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa with high honors as a member of the Chi Epsilon National Civil Engineering Honor Society, and recently obtained her MBA in December of 2021. She not only studied engineering, but also participated in other public service organizations during her collegiate summers and semesters. She interned at the university’s Department of Molecular Bioscience & Bioengineering as a McNair Achievement Program scholar, at the Kaua’i’s Archaeological Field School for the Anthropology Department National Tropical Botanical Garden, and at the Board of Water Supply. She advanced her profession by participating with organizations such as the American Water Works Association and the Hawai'i Water Environment Association. However, she really advanced her professional growth through participation with ASCE, where she worked her way to become president of the Hawai'i Chapter. Today, Kapiolani still gives back to the organization as their past-president and as a member of their Young Member Forum. In 2021, she was awarded the Hawai'i Council of Engineering Societies Young Engineer of the Year Award.
The Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement is given to younger members of ASCE (35 years of age or younger) who are judged to have attained significant professional achievements by the degree to which they have served to advance the profession; exhibited technical competence, high character, and integrity; developed improved member attitudes toward the profession; and contributed to public service outside their professional careers.
