0:01

Engineers are

0:01

ingenious professionals.

0:04

Engineers invent, design, verify

0:04

and qualify, engineers are the

0:10

professionals who make our lives

0:10

and businesses prosperous and

0:14

safe. The Florida Engineering

0:14

Society is proud to put our

0:18

engineering professionals in the

0:18

spotlight so that they may

0:21

educate, share information and

0:21

introduce you to the world of

0:25

engineering that is thriving in

0:25

Florida. Here's your host of the

0:30

engineering Florida podcast, Sam

0:30

Yates, with today's guest.

0:36

it's only been about a year ago that I was sitting here and we began

0:38

the interview process with the

0:40

Florida Engineering Society

0:40

chatting with some of the the

0:51

key people who really make that

0:51

organization what it is. And

0:56

over the course of a year, I

0:56

know that we've touched on many,

0:59

many topics. And today, we're

0:59

touching on the topic of a new

1:02

president for the Florida

1:02

Engineering Society.

1:06

The bar is constantly being

1:06

raised by the leadership of the

1:12

Florida engineering society by

1:12

the leadership at the top and

1:15

one of those leaders, Ron Cola,

1:15

he is the leader of the Florida

1:20

Engineering Society, some of the

1:20

key people behind him have some

1:23

awesome things to say, because

1:23

I've talked with him over the

1:26

past couple of weeks. And they

1:26

gave me some some topics to make

1:30

sure that we touched upon

1:30

because they know these are

1:33

important to you. But Mr. Colas,

1:33

welcome to the program today.

1:39

Glad to be here. Dan, thanks for the opportunity to talk with you. I

1:41

look forward to our discussions.

1:45

I

1:45

always start every program with

1:48

getting to know the guest a

1:48

little bit better. And I know

1:51

that you and I had the

1:51

opportunity a few months back to

1:55

chat in great detail about your

1:55

background, but let's share some

1:59

of that with our audience.

2:01

So

2:01

by way of hearing my accent, you

2:04

probably thought thanks for

2:04

thinking that I am not. I wasn't

2:08

born in the United States. But

2:08

I've been living here for quite

2:10

a long time. Originally from the

2:10

Caribbean, more specifically

2:15

Haiti. And I come from a family

2:15

of entrepreneurs. My father was

2:20

an engineer out to the borders

2:20

in the engineering field. My mom

2:23

was a nurse, and midwife and I

2:23

have in other words, I have like

2:28

five former siblings, and it was

2:28

sitting right in the middle. So

2:32

I was always told that I was a

2:32

troublemaker but good trouble.

2:37

And I've been in the US for over

2:37

40 plus years. Went to school in

2:41

the Midwest, St. Louis

2:41

University and universal misery

2:45

well I know called misery

2:45

science and technology. Great

2:50

school, we like to call it the

2:50

MIT of the Midwest. And

2:55

graduated study my masters at

2:55

WashU. But went to work for

2:58

Caltrans in the west coast as a

2:58

junior engineer, and then a

3:03

geotechnical engineer and

3:03

highway engineer, and then move

3:06

back to the eSports here. Corona

3:06

small firm and then into went

3:12

into the Nationals scene scene,

3:12

we have corporate America, if

3:17

you will, working with national

3:17

firms in different aspects of

3:21

the business. So that's a quick

3:21

summary of who I am.

3:27

And

3:27

I always have to go wow, you

3:29

know that you touched on just a

3:29

few of the topics, licensed

3:33

engineer in seven states.

3:36

Yes,

3:36

one of the one that I keep very

3:39

dearly is California because you

3:39

know, it's one of the hardest

3:42

states because of the seismic

3:42

another thing so make sure that

3:45

I keep that license to quite up

3:45

to date. But yes, I've been

3:51

making sure that I am. I quit

3:51

opportunities for businesses,

3:56

not only for myself, but the

3:56

from our present in some of the

3:58

key states where infrastructure

3:58

is really important for a, you

4:04

know, some kind of an economy on

4:04

the state. So California,

4:08

Florida, somebody made United

4:08

States, more or less like the

4:15

central United States, Maryland,

4:15

Mississippi and Alabama, and

4:21

also in the Caribbean of the Virgin Islands.

4:23

Having

4:23

spent majority of my adult life

4:26

in the Midwest in the great

4:26

state of Ohio, we sort of think

4:29

of Ohio is the crossroads of

4:29

America. I happen to be assigned

4:34

not only aviation, aerospace,

4:34

but the transportation sector

4:38

because into intermodal

4:38

transportation literally does

4:42

make the world go round. And

4:42

we're going to talk about some

4:45

of that, but I know that you are

4:45

going to be giving regular

4:49

updates to your fellow engineers

4:49

through the FES and I have to

4:55

pause and say one of the first

4:55

things that jumped out at me was

4:59

that The glass family and the

4:59

tremendous outpouring that shows

5:05

the Florida Engineering Society

5:05

has more than just a heart, it

5:09

has a huge heart.

5:12

Yeah,

5:12

as you could see, the glass

5:15

familiar was with us at our

5:15

annual conference. And within a

5:19

week of the conference ending,

5:19

we were hit by this horrible

5:24

news with Meredith and a family.

5:24

So I'm very proud of our members

5:30

and colleagues that really

5:30

poured their heart to support

5:34

that family with young children,

5:34

as you can imagine. So it was no

5:38

one expected that it's a young

5:38

couple. And, you know, we wanted

5:44

to make sure this families had

5:44

all the, I guess,

5:48

infrastructure, if you will, on

5:48

the financial side, but really,

5:53

more than financial, if you

5:53

will, to support the family. You

5:58

know, the team at FES is very

5:58

due to our membership and also

6:02

to the leadership on the board.

6:02

We've been working for a long

6:07

time. And it's almost a small

6:07

family. So I I'm very proud of,

6:14

you know, the effort that came

6:14

through in a heartbeat, frankly,

6:17

that was very fast. And in fact,

6:17

the results are that we've

6:21

exceeded the goal.

6:24

And I have to say that, you know, to start your your position as the

6:25

president and achieve that it

6:31

speaks, it speaks volumes of

6:31

what you personally feel about

6:36

the organization. And I think

6:36

you hit it right on the head. It

6:39

is family. So I want to commend

6:39

you for that.

6:41

Thank you, thank you very much.

6:43

Let's talk some of the areas that I know are very important to you.

6:45

rail transportation in Florida.

6:51

I'm sitting here in my office in

6:51

Stuart, Florida, I look out the

6:56

window. And during our our

6:56

conversation, we may hear

7:00

quietly, the train go by bright

7:00

line, because this week, as

7:06

we're recording this, Florida

7:06

began a Miami to Orlando, quote,

7:12

high speed rail, it will get

7:12

faster, but quite an

7:15

accomplishment from a rail

7:15

standpoint, your perspective.

7:19

So,

7:19

you know, back in the days, you

7:22

thought, right, transportation

7:22

is just highway bridges, right?

7:25

People didn't think there were

7:25

other modes of transportation.

7:28

And as you see this mass transit

7:28

system, whether it's a bus or

7:32

rail, for that matter, people

7:32

are becoming more open to the

7:37

idea if you look at Europe for

7:37

that, for that matter, which is

7:42

somewhat very much connected

7:42

because of in terms of different

7:45

countries, but they have a

7:45

fabulous system that is

7:47

interconnected on all particular

7:47

mode. So I commend breadline for

7:52

really pushing the initiative to

7:52

really connect communities. And

7:56

if you will, they're also from

7:56

FDT. Leadership, they are very,

8:02

that's one of their key attributes, they want to make sure communities are connected

8:04

or reconnected for that matter.

8:06

So really is important for many

8:06

ways, for many reasons, not only

8:11

from a mobility standpoint, and

8:11

also it creates a larger

8:16

communities, there will be

8:16

transit development, orientated

8:20

facility, people perhaps will be

8:20

able to leave a little bit

8:24

further but still be able to

8:24

communicate. And then the other

8:27

thing that produces a bit of a

8:27

netzero, if you will, will be

8:32

able to reduce our carbon

8:32

footprint. And, and I think the

8:37

other thing that's important to

8:37

me, our younger generation

8:40

really don't want to drive

8:40

brand, that's another subject

8:43

there. So having another way of

8:43

creating mobility for them is

8:48

important. So I think this is

8:48

coming in real time. As we look

8:52

forward in the future to really

8:52

develop well, of course, the

8:55

technologies is going to be

8:55

smarter will probably will have

8:58

faster training in the future,

8:58

but I think it's a good start.

9:02

And it needs to connect the rest

9:02

of the state if I were to look

9:06

at crystal ball, I hear things

9:06

that bright light is gonna go to

9:11

Tampa, but if you wanted to look

9:11

in the future, I would

9:14

definitely draw draw a triangle

9:14

from the Miami Orlando Tampa, go

9:21

back to Miami. You know, those

9:21

are different alignments that

9:24

will probably be coming in the

9:24

future. And also let alone the

9:27

other areas that are the in

9:27

developer wonder North Florida

9:30

as well. Jacksonville, it's

9:30

another area so I could see, you

9:33

know, legs of well being

9:33

developed, where you know, more

9:38

transportation is provided for people.

9:41

Well, I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that because right now

9:42

we're steel on steel on track.

9:46

Europe and the other countries.

9:46

big proponent maglev. I know the

9:51

Northeast Corridor at one point

9:51

now I'm dating myself because I

9:54

actually worked on the

9:54

communications plan for a

9:58

variation of a maglev have

9:58

committed our transportation

10:02

system for the Northeast

10:02

quarter. It didn't happen. But

10:05

that's a different engineering

10:05

technology altogether, though.

10:08

Absolutely, absolutely. And also the maintenance of him too. So when

10:10

you start having those kind of

10:15

systems, we got to think about,

10:15

well, how are you going to build

10:18

more facilities to maintain this

10:18

trail? How is it to where the

10:23

parts are coming from? So I

10:23

think the Maglev yet it's not

10:25

necessarily taking ground in the

10:25

United States. But I would say

10:30

it's not too far in any future.

10:33

Looking

10:33

at it from from my background,

10:35

one of the things that we always

10:35

did in the news business was to

10:39

do a comparison to build a mile

10:39

of infrastructure being highway

10:46

or being interstate and

10:46

comparing that cost to a mile of

10:51

rail, there is no comparison,

10:51

it's, it's a no brainer, build

10:55

rail, and we will be saving

10:55

money for the citizens of

10:59

Florida ultimately,

11:01

well, and then the other thing you need to look at, well, Florida,

11:02

in a sense, going to be

11:05

landlocked, right? You're not

11:05

going to be able to build any

11:09

more highways in the future. So

11:09

I think the agencies that are in

11:14

this business will look at

11:14

maintain what we have and think

11:17

about different modes, in Floyd,

11:17

also various environmental

11:21

sensitive areas as well. You

11:21

know, so there's some sudden, I

11:26

was the infrastructure

11:26

construction that will disrupt

11:29

scenario. So one needs to be

11:29

mindful of that. So well, and

11:33

other modes are providing the

11:33

alternate, if you will, or

11:37

mobility or volume.

11:40

For

11:40

there are some naysayers there.

11:42

But recently, I spoke with the

11:42

the mayor of Palm Beach County.

11:47

And he relayed the story of how

11:47

in the construction of the

11:52

bright line station in Palm

11:52

Beach County, that led to the

11:55

creation of more than a million

11:55

square feet of space used for

12:02

some retail, but there was a

12:02

million square feet in there of

12:05

residential housing and the

12:05

interesting part, and you hit

12:08

upon it, no requirement for

12:08

those housing projects, part of

12:13

the bright line complex for on

12:13

street parking, because today's

12:18

generation doesn't want to dry

12:18

they want to come from their

12:21

house, get into the train, and

12:21

go where they need to go.

12:25

interest.

12:26

And you said it, right. So it creates it creates business

12:28

opportunities for business

12:32

owners in all those one of

12:32

getting scenarios, the

12:36

businesses, and then also it

12:36

allows residents that are into

12:40

mixed use facilities to almost

12:40

play and work and, and get on

12:46

and get in the system and come

12:46

back. Can you imagine, if you

12:50

were driving on a three hour

12:50

drive, you probably focus on the

12:52

road, right. But if you take a

12:52

bright line or rail system for

12:55

that, you should still do catch

12:55

on work. Because you have all

12:59

the other tools at your

12:59

disposal. And it's a smooth

13:02

ride. If you do your emails, you

13:02

do whatever you need to do for

13:05

work. But and you're more

13:05

connected than than you would

13:08

have been if you're driving.

13:11

switch

13:11

gears a bit to another type of

13:14

transportation and one that I

13:14

also have a notice here there's

13:18

a pattern, Sam is asking

13:18

questions about things that he's

13:21

interested in. But it's also

13:21

engineering too. But that is

13:25

flight. I'm following very

13:25

closely Joby aviation out of

13:31

Dayton, Ohio, that's going to be

13:31

manufacturing in the

13:33

neighborhood of 600. Electric

13:33

taxis, they will either be

13:38

autonomous, or they will be

13:38

single pilot. And I know that

13:42

the Florida engineers totally

13:42

are preparing for this type of

13:47

transportation because they

13:47

helped develop a plan for a

13:52

verta port. Tell us what that is.

13:55

Well,

13:55

so this is an interesting topic.

13:58

And it's still growing. While there are a lot of researches that are taking this around the

14:00

globe, and also in the United

14:03

States. So there's evil that

14:03

people like to talk about, but

14:07

suddenly, I think it's coming.

14:07

And it reminds me of the

14:13

Jetsons. I've always wondered,

14:13

Is it true perhaps you know,

14:19

things thought ideas start to be

14:19

developing from the cartoon and

14:22

then becomes reality later. But

14:22

if you think about it, it it is

14:27

something that's going to

14:27

provide more opportunities to be

14:32

more mobile. I think the

14:32

struggle is from the FAA side is

14:38

Adi regulate these these flying

14:38

vehicles, whether it's

14:43

autonomous or single pilot, so

14:43

that in an airspace that's not

14:48

really compromising the larger

14:48

pool of aircrafts that are

14:55

flying there. So that's one

14:55

aspect. The second aspect is If

15:00

they're going to be electric

15:00

vehicles, where do you charge?

15:03

And how do you charge them? Do

15:03

you have enough of a power grid

15:05

to make sure that you can

15:05

service those? And how do you

15:10

maintain them? So there are a

15:10

lot of other questions that are

15:12

coming behind that. But

15:12

certainly I think the technology

15:15

is there. It's it's coming, I

15:15

would say the next 10 years.

15:21

After they go through the

15:21

pilots, pilot programs, and

15:24

they've talked to the FAA, they

15:24

have certain regulations, put in

15:27

place at least a certain ceiling

15:27

floor, I think believe I believe

15:30

from the auto, whether you call

15:30

it the AMA, which is the

15:38

American I wanted to call teams

15:38

there, there's a 500 foot

15:43

ceiling for autonomous aircraft.

15:43

And I happen to be one of the

15:47

pilots that fly the electric

15:47

helicopters and passionate about

15:52

that. But it there's that

15:52

ceiling, but there will be only

15:56

be a higher ceiling for other

15:56

vehicles, as well. So I think

16:00

there's a lot to come that needs

16:00

to be regulated, and then to

16:04

avoid compromises. But it is a

16:04

acknowledges that there are some

16:08

it's coming we can't. The

16:08

question is how far can one go

16:14

with a single charge.

16:16

This

16:16

is true. I also fly drones for

16:19

different purposes. And that's

16:19

always a concern. When the

16:22

warning light comes on low

16:22

battery, low battery, it's like

16:25

oh my gosh, I hope I got into

16:25

power to get back home. So you

16:27

know, that's not a, that's not a

16:27

luxury option to have if you're

16:32

flying people or cargo. So

16:32

that's certainly something that

16:35

we'll have to watch. But I'm

16:35

looking at it carefully because

16:38

I know a lot of our major

16:38

airports have feeder airports

16:42

nearby that could accommodate

16:42

these. So Florida is pretty wide

16:46

open. I am hoping to see that.

16:49

One

16:49

more thing I mentioned. So you

16:51

know, when we talk about

16:51

transportation in Florida, we

16:54

also talking about Air Mobility,

16:54

right? So we talk on the

16:58

different modes. So the Air

16:58

Mobility side is key important.

17:02

We have you know, we're

17:02

launching spacecraft from

17:07

Florida. Certainly Florida is

17:07

well positioned to really have a

17:13

become a pioneer in this kind of industry.

17:16

I

17:16

hope so I look forward to to

17:18

having you back on in the future

17:18

and talking about the progress

17:22

that the engineers have helped

17:22

to make here in Florida, when it

17:26

comes also to progress on the

17:26

highways autonomous vehicle. I

17:30

know, the Florida Turnpike

17:30

Authority in all of its new

17:35

planning for new segments of

17:35

Turnpike, if you look at the

17:39

plans, you will see every 500

17:39

feet a light pole, except it's

17:44

not technically it is

17:44

technically a light pole, but it

17:47

is also a 5g retransmission

17:47

tower, because right now, that's

17:53

about the range of autonomous

17:53

signal pass through. And I think

17:59

even today, we have already

17:59

autonomous semis on the

18:03

Turnpike, is that something that

18:03

is really going to be ushered in

18:07

with all the developments we're seeing?

18:10

Well, you know, I think they've been talking about autonomous vehicle

18:12

more like a private vehicle and

18:15

so forth. And as I was talking

18:15

to some other colleagues, then

18:19

the whole thing is, well, they

18:19

will be autonomous. But how do

18:22

you create? How do you we

18:22

energize vehicles? Right? So and

18:27

I think that's the key question

18:27

there. So do you have enough

18:30

power on the you could do a test

18:30

pilot project, say less than a

18:34

mile on a highway and where you

18:34

could provide some filters to

18:40

charge the batteries? What does

18:40

that look like if you're driving

18:44

a truck, right? And it's not

18:44

even a semi yet some kind of a

18:47

four wheel drive this thing on

18:47

much higher? So are you going to

18:51

get the same amperage to charge

18:51

your batteries? And then when

18:54

you get to the semi? What does

18:54

that look like again? So I think

18:58

from an autonomous vehicle in

18:58

terms of what Google has been

19:01

doing, and other key folks they

19:01

are, it's proven that the

19:06

vehicle can self drive itself.

19:06

With some management, I think

19:10

the bigger parties are do

19:10

maintain energy into vehicles so

19:16

that you can get more for your

19:16

miles. And recently I drove one,

19:21

I just happen to be renting and

19:21

they give me one vehicle. And it

19:25

was not a Tesla, you will some

19:25

other brands. And I had a hard

19:29

time finding a super charging

19:29

station. So I panicked. I had a

19:34

200 miles, you know capacity.

19:34

But after what the heck am I

19:38

going to charge the vehicle so I

19:38

had to drive outside at 10%

19:41

battery? Can you imagine? Well,

19:41

then I told myself Well, the

19:45

thing happened, I'll just leave

19:45

it on the side of the road. But

19:48

but the point is the point the

19:48

point is, we as we are

19:52

developing these new

19:52

technologies from our former

19:54

self driving vehicle, we also

19:54

need to think about the energy

19:58

sources right though is the

19:58

greed, strong enough to provide

20:03

ministrations? Right. And then

20:03

another thing too? How do you

20:08

transition the combustion engine

20:08

into the vehicle? So are you

20:13

going to have notice stations

20:13

that will have perhaps provide

20:19

gasoline or diesel and at the

20:19

same time, they also provide

20:21

electric? So there are a lot

20:21

more questions, but I think it's

20:24

coming. The idea is, is doing

20:24

research, how to really make the

20:29

highways a little bit smarter.

20:29

And smarter means just the

20:33

vehicles or communicating with

20:33

some other devices, but at the

20:35

same time charging, right?

20:39

touching

20:39

upon all the the avenues,

20:41

shoreline, Florida is rich in

20:41

Shoreline, I would not be doing

20:47

my job if I didn't ask about

20:47

engineering ports. And what can

20:53

we see from Europe? Notice I'm

20:53

also asking you to project some

20:57

vision here to what's up with

20:57

the ports.

21:01

So

21:01

most of our, well, Florida is

21:04

ready to get with an artist

21:04

offline. But Florida is good

21:08

with the Caribbean and Latin

21:08

America. Yes, there are a lot of

21:12

ships that are coming through

21:12

our shores, and important, you

21:16

know, or exporting goods. And

21:16

also, it's allowed Florida to

21:20

really be a major player in the

21:20

global economy because of trade.

21:25

So ships and ports are allowed

21:25

allowing trades to be a little

21:31

bit more enhanced in Florida.

21:31

With that said, the major ports

21:39

are also looking at upgrading

21:39

the infrastructure is because

21:43

the the manufacturers of the

21:43

chips are making their chips,

21:46

much smaller, much, much much

21:46

smarter. And we talked about

21:51

energy a while ago. So, you

21:51

know, there's also a thinking,

21:55

well, will the ships have liquid

21:55

nitrogen fuel? Right. So LNG is

22:02

something that's very much being

22:02

discussed, I think South Africa

22:05

has the largest hub for LNG. So

22:05

I could see those ships visiting

22:10

the ports in Florida thinking

22:10

about that way. But one of the

22:13

areas that they've been looking

22:13

at is really shore power, to the

22:17

point where when a ship comes

22:17

in, plug in right away, you

22:20

know, power to the ships without

22:20

really impeding the power grid.

22:26

So I see that being done in, in

22:26

South Florida, put in South

22:30

Florida, Jacksonville is looking

22:30

at that Tampa is doing it that

22:34

is also looking at that. So the

22:34

you know, from a technology

22:41

point of view, I think that's

22:41

what the maritime world is

22:45

looking at. The other part I see

22:45

going on is how do you protect

22:51

this footprint from a resiliency

22:51

side, I think we would not do

22:55

our service, too, if we didn't

22:55

touch that part of it on the

22:58

port side, because Florida is

22:58

well located, you know, always

23:01

under threat of hurricane and

23:01

sea level rise, etc. So there

23:07

are ways that the ports of

23:07

thinking is to retrofit their

23:11

footprint against, you know,

23:11

those challenges that come with

23:15

resiliency. And the ships are

23:15

gonna keep on being smaller and

23:23

smaller. So from that

23:23

investment, I think the port

23:27

facilities will have to continue

23:27

upgrading their their

23:32

infrastructure, you know, us

23:32

having mega ships now that are

23:35

bringing more cargo in, you have

23:35

to perhaps we can add having

23:39

better and smarter cranes from

23:39

from a cruise line, people are

23:43

taking the cruise and the cruise

23:43

ships are getting bigger as

23:46

well. So there are a lot of

23:46

areas where I believe that ports

23:52

will will continue to improve

23:52

their facility. And we're

23:56

talking about inland ports to,

23:56

you know, for example, soft

23:58

border port Miami Port

23:58

Everglades, what a waste point

24:01

they'll have, they'll have,

24:01

they'll need capacity. So if you

24:04

want to trade more, where do you

24:04

store those goods? More to come

24:09

on.

24:11

In each of the areas that we have touched upon. There are so many

24:13

engineering tentacles that reach

24:18

out in so many different areas.

24:18

Do we have enough engineers to

24:23

do what needs to be done? And if

24:23

not, how do we get more

24:29

students, more professionals

24:29

into the engineering world?

24:35

So I've touched on this. That's a great question, Sam. And also

24:36

that question is tied to

24:41

workforce development, right?

24:41

Which is something that

24:45

everybody's noticing that

24:45

there's a need for so I would

24:49

take that question and add to it

24:49

with what will future engineers

24:54

look like? You know, in my days,

24:54

we had to take all the

24:58

prerequisites, take the car

24:58

ballistic, did the differential

25:01

equation and everything else to

25:01

become an engineer. And then how

25:05

much am I using that today? You

25:05

know, so I think the new

25:10

engineers they would have, and

25:10

that's working with the

25:12

academia, working with others as

25:12

well. And the new genius will

25:17

have to be able to be educated

25:17

in the ways that they can

25:22

compete with the new

25:22

technologies, and be fully ready

25:26

to address those challenges.

25:26

And, you know, AI is is a big

25:30

element of it. So I know that

25:30

some a lot of universities are

25:34

talking about how to introduce

25:34

that into their curriculum. But

25:39

to your call the call your

25:39

questions, do we need more? Yes.

25:42

And it starts with the the STEM

25:42

program, you know, on early

25:51

education, that we need to keep

25:51

promoting the studies of

25:55

mathematics, science, to, you

25:55

know, to encourage more younger

26:00

students to get into the field

26:00

of engineers, engineering. It's

26:05

a phenomenon, field, if you

26:05

will. It's not something very

26:10

understood. It's not sexy,

26:10

compared to architecture that

26:13

they get to see. But it's really

26:13

the backbone of everything that

26:19

we see whether it's

26:19

infrastructure with buildings,

26:22

or just energy, I think that it

26:22

needs to be talked by the

26:29

leadership of society's

26:29

professional societies, owners,

26:33

the private sector, the public

26:33

sector, we need more engineers.

26:37

And when and then also, perhaps,

26:37

like I said, briefly, is

26:43

modifying their code their

26:43

curriculum for for the study of

26:46

engineers, if you look at other

26:46

countries, China, actually, when

26:51

I used to work in Caltrans, in

26:51

the West Coast, there are a wave

26:55

of engineers coming from

26:55

Vietnam, you know, China and

26:59

those other places. So a lot of

26:59

Asian engineers were coming,

27:02

because there was still meet

27:02

having that challenge. There

27:06

were not enough people. So we

27:06

need to encourage our youngest

27:11

students to study engineering.

27:13

We've

27:13

covered a lot of material today.

27:16

And, you know, frankly, I wanted

27:16

to say that for our audience,

27:20

you're going to be spared,

27:20

because otherwise, Ron and I

27:23

would be sitting here for

27:23

another couple of hours just

27:26

carrying on conversations about

27:26

different topics here. But is

27:30

there anything that we have not

27:30

touched upon that you wanted to

27:33

make sure that we covered today?

27:35

That was awkward to talk about a lot of of the things that are really

27:37

keeping a lot of people awake? I

27:41

think transportation of all is a

27:41

key element of, of development,

27:47

if you will. And I know the

27:47

Chamber of Commerce, the Florida

27:51

Chamber of Commerce is very

27:51

concerned about upgrading,

27:55

improving floor infrastructure

27:55

for that, for that can become at

27:58

least the 10th global economy in

27:58

the world, currently 14. And

28:05

it's just not transportation,

28:05

but overall, you know, workforce

28:09

development, education, and an

28:09

increasing trade trade

28:15

development. I think we've

28:15

covered a number of things. But

28:17

one of the things I would say,

28:17

looking ahead is how engineers

28:22

are giving back to our

28:22

communities as well. We need to

28:26

wait, that's an important

28:26

element of it. So we need to be

28:28

part of our communities to

28:28

provide support and stay

28:32

connected.

28:35

I'm going to save that for a standalone topic for when we

28:36

have you back on and that leads

28:40

to the question, will you come

28:40

back for another episode?

28:43

I'd

28:43

love to I think this topic is

28:46

exciting. And because we don't

28:46

know what it will look like, but

28:49

suddenly, we could shape it as

28:49

engineers and other business

28:53

owners and educators. We can

28:53

shape the future. So I look

28:56

forward to an invitation.

28:59

I will make that invitation looking forward to it myself.

29:00

Ron Cola, president of the

29:04

Florida Engineering Society.

29:04

Welcome aboard. I want to say

29:08

that because I don't know if I

29:08

said that to begin with at the

29:11

beginning of the program. I'm

29:11

proud to be part of the effort

29:15

that the Florida Engineering

29:15

Society does to help educate our

29:19

public, our legislative leaders

29:19

and our fellow engineers. So

29:23

thank you for being here.

29:25

I thank you. And I think I'm very humbled to be leading the this

29:26

great group of people and you

29:32

know, on the roadmap here, so I

29:32

can do with with with without

29:38

the support of our staff. So I'd

29:38

like to kind of echo that and

29:43

say that the stuff that we have

29:43

added here, and also our

29:47

colleagues in the ACC side has

29:47

been very tremendous. So thank

29:51

you for the opportunity.

29:53

My

29:53

pleasure. I'm Sam Yates, your

29:55

host until our next episode,

29:55

have a great day everybody.

30:05

Thanks for listening

30:05

to another informative episode

30:08

of the engineering Florida

30:08

podcast. Our goal is to help

30:12

educate and inform everyone who

30:12

listens to our podcast about our

30:16

members and topics of interest

30:16

to the Florida Engineering

30:20

Society. On behalf of the

30:20

Florida Engineering Society, and

30:26

the engineering Florida podcast,

30:26

have a great day everybody