Engineering Blog

CivilGEO industry awards — Spring 2026

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The 3D Elevation Data Program is a Game-Changer

For decades, engineers have relied on a patchwork of data consisting of field surveys, orthographic photos, and other sources to piece together baseline topographic data for infrastructure design…

Experiments in Flood Risk Assessment

As cities grapple with flood preparedness, a strategy known as “stochastic storm transposition” (SST) is increasingly viewed as a tool useful for flood risk assessment. Today, the method…

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When an Idea Alone Isn’t Enough

My seven-year old daughter had a fabulous idea the other day. I could tell from the way she was hopping around the living room with her little hands waving that this was an idea she was excited about. She had a vision for a building she wanted to make and by her…

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From Rancher to Scrum Master: A Profile of Chris Maeder

I’d like to think that wrangling cattle as a teenager prepared me for my later stint as Scrum Master at CivilGEO. On the ranch I had to be prepared to act quickly and adapt to conditions that could change hourly: a sick steer, a storm rolling in, a broken auger drive. In…

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Infusing the SMART Process with Brilliance

Photo By Matthew Yohe at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link “Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them,…

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How Agile Methodology Pulled Us Out of the Weeds

Some ten years ago, I worked with a developer who I will refer to as “Ivan.” Ivan was a software developer from Russia who, aside from regular outbursts of sarcasm, rarely communicated with anyone. He worked largely by himself and he liked it that way. He was famous for holding up completion…

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Five Ways to Cultivate a Good Relationship with Your Employees

I’ve been managing employees since I graduated from college. At the beginning, I stumbled a lot. I was only recently a kid myself and my insight into how to treat people was still developing. But, I’ve learned a few things over the years and my skill at managing people has improved considerably,…

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GeoHECRAS Update: USGS StreamStats and more

Apr 27, 2016 Release It’s been a busy week and we are pleased to announce another major update of GeoHECRAS. As requested by our customers, we have added several advanced features. New features like the USGS StreamStats command allows users to click on a stream location in the map view and the software will delineate…

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Virtual Reality Makes the Engineering Landscape Real

The stereoscopic 3D movie experience popularized by the movie “Avatar” is apparently not exhilarating enough for the American viewing public. Now an even more immersive and multi-sensory movie experience via Virtual Reality (VR) technology is on its way. Some predict that the most satisfying movie experience will be the one to be…

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Who’s Afraid of a Big, Brash Corporation?

Earlier in my career, there was a time when a software release announcement by one of our competitors would have sent me into a panic. Well, not a panic exactly, but I would have been concerned. Surely, I thought, a corporate giant with that kind of annual revenue would have the most…

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Harnessing the Power of Big Data

Growing in volume by the hour, big data is everywhere. Just reflect for a moment on the many forms of data we use regularly as a modern society: Satellite aerial imagery Global positioning Atmospheric weather data Surveillance security video Silly cat videos on YouTube as well as content from social media and…

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