SEH’s Act of Excellence (AOE) program allows all employees to recognize and celebrate their colleagues who contribute to making SEH a top workplace. Every quarter, an employee-led committee reviews the nominations and chooses a winner for each category – Accomplishment/Innovation, Character, and Teamwork.
We congratulate the recipients of the winter 2023 AOE award: Josh Sopata, Steve Collins, Craig Burgess, Bailey Nelson, Chris Sigit-Sidharta, and Matt Stewart! Below, we highlight each employee and team, along with the nomination category, and reason for their celebration.
Accomplishment/Innovation
Josh Sopata, PE (AZ, CO, NM, NV, PA)
Professional Engineer
The Act: During design development on a project, Josh uncovered a significant electrical engineering issue that he presented to the client. He performed a full code review and engaged multiple equipment manufacturers to fully understand the issue and provide the client with options. As the engineer of record, he developed preliminary construction cost estimates and made recommendations to the client. Josh’s presentation was clear, concise, and thorough, and the client was impressed with his understanding of the issue and, most importantly, their needs.
Character
Steven Collins
Graduate Engineer
The Act: Steven went above and beyond assisting the bridge inspection team in Denver, Colorado, for four months. Based in Durango, Steven was in a perfect location to help with this work, and his can-do attitude was evident from the very start. He set traffic counters weekly, reset damaged counters, and used his handyman skills to fix damaged counters. Rather than choosing locations at random, Steven chose routes to optimize travel time, allowing him to get more counters set as the fall/winter daylight hours faded. He communicated with staff where he was working and stopped and talked with road grader operators to inform them of the locations of the counters so they could avoid the road tube, thus helping prevent damage to our equipment. His efficiency helped us to meet the deadline and stay under budget on the project. Steven also took a dozen of our dead traffic counters home to tinker with and get back into service on his own time.
Teamwork
Bailey Nelson, Scientist
Craig Burgess, PE (CO, TX), Professional Engineer
Chris Sigit-Sidharta, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, GGP (CO, ID, NM), Architect
Matt Stewart, Planner
The Act: The team planned and hosted SEH's first annual technical summit, handling everything from the vision through execution. They managed every detail and invited 100 employee-owners who left the event feeling energized by the innovative solutions and talent shared by the presenters. The event was successful and will have a lasting impact beyond the classroom!
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