This weekend, six former UK athletes will be inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame. Among them is popular wide receiver and kick returner Derek Abney. Abney, who played for the Wildcats from 2000-2003, has been hailed by UK Athletics as, “arguably the greatest kick returner in college football history after setting seven NCAA records, 11 SEC records and 14 school records for kick returns and all-purpose yardage.”

Digging into the numbers, Abney’s accolades are not only impressive in terms of UK records, but also his accomplishments on a national scale. “Abney was named a first-team All-America as a junior, second-team All-America as a senior and a three-year first-team All-SEC performer, becoming only the fourth player in school history to accomplish that feat. The talented star was the first player in NCAA history to accumulate 2,000 receiving yards, 2,000 kickoff return yards and 1,000 punt return yards. In all, Abney returned eight kicks for touchdowns during his career (six punts, two kickoffs), while he ended his UK career ranked second in three statistical categories: receptions (197), receiving yards (2,339) and touchdowns receiving (18)” (UK Athletics).

What few fans know is that Abney excelled on the field while undertaking the equally arduous task of earning an undergraduate degree in civil engineering. In fact, when Abney’s aspirations to play in the NFL were sidelined by injuries, his engineering background helped secure him a job as a site design engineer at Woolpert, based in Dayton, Ohio. During his time at Woolpert, Abney became an Accredited Professional for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, which rates the design, construction and operation of “green” buildings. In late 2011, Abney left Woolpert to take a position with Kinder Morgan, an energy infrastructure company. In less than a year, Abney has already been given significant oversight over three ambitious projects.

“My official position is Engineer and Maintenance Manager for the Southeast Region, but I would consider myself more of a project manager than a designer,” Abney explains. “I am managing major repairs of two liquid-products docks, one in Charleston S.C, and one in Wilmington, N.C. I’m also coordinating the repair of two ship-to-shore gantry cranes at our break-bulk facility in Fernandina Beach, Fla.”

Given that he used to run into opposing defenses at full speed during kickoffs and punt returns, it is not surprising Abney relishes the challenge.

“My favorite parts of my responsibilities are my freedom to be creative in addressing infrastructure issues and the fact I’m busy. Being very busy can be challenging, as well; as for everyone else, it can be a struggle to balance work with home life.”

With his playing days long in his rearview mirror, it is understandable Abney was completely surprised when UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart called him with the news about his selection for the Hall of Fame.

“I was shocked. I had no idea why he was calling,” he remembers. “It didn’t sink in at first but as the days went by I started to understand what it meant; I was voted in by faculty, current UK reps and coaches, media and other Hall of Famers as being one of the best athletes ever to be a Wildcat. What a fantastic honor!”

As he continues to establish a career at Kinder Morgan, Abney hopes to one day obtain an MBA—something he originally planned to do during his senior year, opting instead to prepare for the NFL combine. When fall arrives, Abney still feels an inner tug back to his days as a player and a student.

“I still miss the camaraderie and the competition that went with playing football. It’s a special bond and it doesn’t come cheap or easy. I also appreciated working in groups with other civil engineering majors. I really enjoyed the team projects and learning from the other students.”

For many students, selecting a major is an intimidating proposition. What if I end up disliking what I chose? Will I be doomed to a career in a field I can’t stand or, worse, one that is increasingly obsolete? Such questions are not uncommon and even selecting a highly-marketable major like engineering doesn’t fully resolve the quandary. After all, there are numerous disciplines within the broad field of engineering and even more particularized specializations within each discipline. Should I investigate aerospace applications for engineering or try my hand at new network solutions? It can be overwhelming.

How can students evaluate their numerous options in a way that takes into account their interests, life experiences and educational opportunities? Members of the faculty in the UK College of Engineering have related the various ways in which they discovered what they wanted to immerse themselves in for the rest of their professional lives. We have organized their reflections into five categories.

BE CURIOUS: David Puleo, Director, Center for Biomedical Engineering

For most of his youth, David Puleo wanted to be a surgeon; however, upon entering high school, he realized his strong interest in medicine was matched by an equal fascination with technology and engineering concepts. One day, while reading, he came across the words “biomedical engineering.” Intrigued, he began to conduct research and discovered an organization called the Biomedical Engineering Society. He wrote them, asking, “What is biomedical engineering and where can I study it?” After examining the literature they sent him, Dr. Puleo knew the career path he wanted to take. “Biomedical engineering was the marriage of the medical and the technical that I had wanted,” he says. “And it still offered the potential to go to medical school if I ever desired to pursue it.”

Following your curiosity can lead you into new fields and communities you might not have known existed. With the wealth of information available through internet research, it has never been easier to discover previously unknown career opportunities.

REFLECT ON YOUR BACKGROUND: Nikiforos Stamatiadis, Professor of Civil Engineering

Growing up in Greece, Nikiforos Stamatiadis was fascinated by public transportation. The ability to accommodate large groups of people within a networked infrastructure drew him to study transportation engineering. During his undergraduate studies in Greece, he helped develop efficient bus routes and systems. Upon beginning a graduate program in the United States, he quickly discovered that, broadly speaking, the U.S. doesn’t rely on public transportation. As a result, he shifted his attention to other aspects of transportation engineering, such as driver licensing, driver education and highway safety; those issues, like public transportation, affect thousands of people every day. “At the end of the day, if I design a safe highway that serves the needs of the community, accommodates mobility concerns and is conscientious of our impact upon the environment, I consider that time spent very rewarding.”

When connecting your experience to possible career options, don’t overlook your childhood, adolescence, geographical location, hobbies, etc. They may provide clues as to what subjects naturally keep you interested.

ACCUMULATE EXPERIENCES: Christine Trinkle, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Christine Trinkle obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering right here at UK, but it wasn’t until she was pursuing her Ph.D at Cal-Berkeley that she began to see the shape of her future research. She recalls, “When I went to Berkeley, my interest wasn’t on the biological side, but one day I decided to grab some coffee and head to a talk with some friends. It was on the interface between the mechanical engineering side and the needs in the medical, pharmaceutical and biological areas. I remember sitting in this talk and thinking, ‘This is amazing! This is such an interesting and unique part of mechanical engineering that I had never seen before and had never guessed was there.’”

Attending lectures, visiting trade shows and taking advantage of student travel opportunities to annual conferences is a great way to accumulate experiences, some of which will influence your course of study and future vocational choices.

SEEK OUT PROFESSORS WHO LOVE THEIR WORK: Braden Lusk, Assistant Professor of Mining Engineering

Like most young boys, Braden Lusk enjoyed setting off fireworks and creating small explosions, but never planned on becoming a professional blaster until he sat in professor Paul Worsey’s blasting seminar while an undergraduate student at Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T). Lusk recalls: “Paul came in and played a video called ‘Dance of the Detonators.’ It was nothing but mine blasts set to classical music. The whole time, he was in the back of the room, laughing like he had never seen it before, and I thought, ‘Man, this is crazy…I’ve got to do this!’” As a result, Lusk began taking as many of Dr. Worsey’s classes as he could.

Most professors relish the chance to work with students on research—especially undergraduate students. Take advantage of office hours and other opportunities to connect with professors. The satisfaction they find in their research may become infectious.

SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES: Thomas Novak, Alliance Coal Chair Professor of Mining Engineering

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Tom Novak was recruited by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh, where he first began to research mine safety. While with the Bureau, an unforeseen opening emerged. “The Bureau of Mines offered a program where I could earn a graduate degree while working for them. I already had an electrical engineering background, so I got a master’s degree in mining engineering from the University of Pittsburgh,” he recalls. After that, the educational opportunities continued to present themselves. “Once I had my master’s degree, Penn State contacted me about being an instructor of their mining technology courses. In return, I got time off to pursue my Ph.D. coursework and research. I jumped at that chance.”

Novak chuckles when he thinks about his diverse professional experience. “There’s really no such thing as long-range planning,” he says. “If, when I was in high school, you would have told me I would be a university professor for over 30 years, I would have said you were nuts! But I took advantage of opportunities when they were there.”

UK Athletics summarized Derek’s impressive football accomplishments in their news release about the upcoming inductions.

“[Derek Abney] is arguably the greatest kick returner in college football history after setting seven NCAA records, 11 SEC records and 14 school records for kick returns and all-purpose yardage. Abney was named a first-team All-America as a junior, second-team All-America as a senior and a three-year first-team All-SEC performer, becoming only the fourth player in school history to accomplish that feat. The talented star was the first player in NCAA history to accumulate 2,000 receiving yards, 2,000 kickoff return yards and 1,000 punt return yards. In all, Abney returned eight kicks for touchdowns during his career (six punts, two kickoffs), while he ended his UK career ranked second in three statistical categories: receptions (197), receiving yards (2,339) and touchdowns receiving (18). Abney’s NFL career ended because of injury.”

Although injuries prevented Derek from pursuing a professional football career, he has excelled as a civil engineer. In December 2011, he began working for Kinder Morgan, an energy infrastructure company, as their Southeast Region engineer/project manager. He is in charge of two significant projects: repairing Kinder Morgan’s North Charleston Dock as well as their Wilmington Terminal Dock. He passed his professional engineer’s exam this past April.

Congratulations to Derek on being honored for his football accomplishments as well as his successful engineering career!

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So why leave a distinguished career in Ames for UK? “I was born in Lexington,” Dr. Souleyrette grins. “I’ve always kept an eye on UK, hoping to get back here. This is my dream job, and the only one that could have taken me away from Iowa State.”

Dr. Souleyrette is energetic, and his enthusiasm for his role as a professor is infectious. He is dedicated to motivating students with a positive, optimistic vision of the future. “We are bombarded by negative visions of the present and the future and, while I don’t want to minimize unemployment or other national and global issues, we certainly aren’t doomed! I like to make the argument that there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the present and the future. It’s definitely different from what most students hear, whether on the news or in the community,” he claims.

One reason for optimism is the ongoing need for civil engineers in today’s workforce, in addition to surprising job satisfaction statistics in favor of transportation engineers. “According to a recent CNN Money article, transportation engineers have the second least-stressful job in America. Sixty-nine% of transportation engineers say their job stress is low because they get to work with real people who utilize what they create and because their fear of job loss is small due to cities often putting transportation projects in their budget” he explains (to see the article, visit http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/pf/jobs/1010/gallery.best_jobs_least_stress.moneymag/2.html).

Dr. Souleyrette’s passion and appreciation for civil engineering has its roots in summers spent operating a jackhammer bigger than he under a merciless Texas sun. “My friend’s father was an estimator for construction projects and he got us summer work,” he recalls, “I got to see what it takes to put something together and, in the end, I got into civil engineering because I wanted to build something I could see and not just work with conceptual issues.”

After deciding to focus on transportation engineering rather than structural engineering in graduate school at the University of Texas, Dr. Souleyrette continued his study of transportation by earning his Ph.D. at Cal-Berkeley. “Transportation is extremely interdisciplinary,” he says. “There are two things that underlie most of my studies in transportation: human factors and information. So I’m not just thinking about highways, waterways, airports and railroads, but also about psychology, economics, politics, statistics and information technology. They’re all related.”

Thus, Dr. Souleyrette brings a well-rounded perspective to his position as Commonwealth Chair Professor of Transportation Engineering; but what does it mean to be the Commonwealth Chair? The professor explains that because the position is supported by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, he is dedicated to doing something for the state. “My work in this position shouldn’t be primarily academic, but show practical application. I am interested in all modes of transportation and maximizing Kentucky’s advantages for better economic growth and quality of life.”

Dr. George Blandford, Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, regards his newest hire as a strong addition to the faculty. “Dr. Souleyrette brings a ‘big picture’ view of the transportation profession to UK.  He has numerous national contacts that will be very important in securing additional research funding for UK as well as the recruitment of additional graduate students.”

Grateful to have returned to Kentucky, Dr. Souleyrette has hit the ground running with classes underway and graduate students studying under his tutelage; both are key components to the people-oriented field he enjoys. “I like working with students on what I see as detective work—looking for relationships, solving problems and helping students grow in their ability to do it themselves. The students often come up with better ideas than I do” he smiles. “We benefit from working with the students as much or more than they benefit from us.”

Dr. Bowen is the founder and chairman of Bowen Engineering and has received honorary doctorates in Business Administration from the University of Indiana in Evansville and in Engineering from Purdue Engineering.  Dr. Bowen was recently appointed the Donn E. Hancher Distinguished Fellow by the Construction Engineering and Management Program at Purdue University where he taught a class on Leadership and Advanced Project Management. 

The Hancher Lecture was established by the Construction Engineering and Project Management faculty to honor Donn E. Hancher for his contributions to civil engineering and the Construction Engineering and Project Management program at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Hancher, who retired from UK in 2008 after 17 years of service, had been the Terrell-McDowell Chair of Construction Engineering & Project Management, chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering.

For more information, contact Ann-Marie Harik, President of UK’s ASCE chapter.

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The symposium was organized by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and the Korean Geotechnical Society, and more than 300 delegates from 31 countries attended. The symposium was a platform for the exchanging and sharing of ideas, state-of-the-art knowledge, and research results on deformation characteristics of soil and rock materials. The main thrust of the symposium was to present current research on advanced geotechnical laboratory testing techniques and application of those advanced techniques to integrated site characterization and other practical engineering applications.

Corrie Walton-Macaulay presented on the “Effect of Fouling on the Deformation and Stiffness of Railroad Ballast”. The presentation covered research performed at the University of Kentucky to determine the effect of contamination of railroad ballast by using coal dust as the contaminant. The results of the experimentation were the development of correlations between deformation and stiffness degradation and fouling severity, which can be used in developing design criteria and planning maintenance cycles. The presentation was well received, and colleagues showed interest in future collaborations.

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