Global company is a partner in construction engineering education
 echtel senior management staff and UW-Madison civil and environmental engineering faculty have, for years, bumped into one another at Construction Industry Institute events. Recently, however, the international engineering, construction and project management giant began a partnership with UW-Madison that Rick Bradford of Bechtel calls one of the company’s most aggressive relationships with a university.
Manager of construction for Bechtel Systems and Infrastructure, Bradford met Professor Awad Hanna when the two teamed up on a research project. Through his visits to the university, Bradford learned about the UW-Madison Construction Engineering and Management Program.
About the same time, Bechtel Civil Infrastructure President Cliff Mumm spoke at the UW-Madison Construction Club banquet about his experiences leading the company’s $2.3 billion infrastructure repair activities in Iraq. “Cliff came back, then, and said Bechtel needs to become more involved with Wisconsin,” recalls Bradford. “So with that, and with the fact that I’d already started talking with Awad Hanna, we decided to get more aggressive with it.”
Bradford became the executive sponsor for the company’s relationship with UW-Madison. Initially, Bechtel maintained a presence at both the spring and fall engineering career fairs, and staff began speaking more frequently at Construction Club meetings.
Three years ago, however, Bechtel staff began teaching Construction Systems (CEE 290), a three-credit undergraduate course that focuses on the building construction industry. Offered in fall, the course runs eight hours on both Friday and Saturday for three weekends.
Jordan Swanson took Construction Systems as a junior in fall 2008. Swanson, who interned with Bechtel National on a chemical weapons demilitarization project, hopes to become a field engineer in the construction industry when he graduates in May 2010.
He says taking the course from a construction industry representative was a valuable experience. “I would recommend that every construction engineering and management student—or any other engineering student thinking about working in the field—take this class taught by Bechtel,” says Swanson. “The knowledge that I gained through this course puts me one step ahead of the people that haven’t been exposed to real-life situations through these very knowledgeable instructors.”
In addition to in-kind support of Construction Systems, Bechtel also has provided financial assistance for the Construction Engineering and Management Program for the past three years.
Executive sponsor Bradford says the benefits of the Bechtel presence at UW-Madison works both ways. “The importance for us, because we’re interested in bringing young, new talent into the company, is to be able to do that—and at the same time, contribute back to support the ongoing interest in construction engineering.”
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