UW CEE senior Iris Kwong.
Senior Iris Kwong always thought she would enjoy a career in structural engineering. Thanks to her summer internship, that thought has been validated.
“It was great to come to the realization that structural is something that is extremely appealing and interesting to me,” Kwong said. “The fact that I was able to fully immerse myself in the structural engineering industry was my favorite part.”
Kwong spent the summer interning with BergerABAM, located in Federal Way, Wash. As a structural engineering intern in the buildings group, she worked primarily on military based projects, a few of which were at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The team’s projects included designing a tactical force center and retrofitting buildings on the military base.
During the internship, Kwong worked closely with other engineers, assisting them with a variety of projects, such as creating simplified structural calculations packages, visiting project sites to evaluate the status of construction and assisting with proposal and design narratives for upcoming projects.
Kwong honed a variety of skills and became more familiar with various codes and manuals that are frequently used in industry. She also learned how to use one of the most common Building Information Modeling software tools, Revit. Due to not having taken senior courses yet, Kwong was able to get up-to-speed on various skills through on-the-job learning.
“Even without the knowledge of senior design courses I was able to immerse myself in the more technical aspects of the projects,” Kwong said. “Having to learn how to use programs through actual applications benefited me in terms of quickly becoming more efficient and experienced.”
Following graduation, Kwong plans to pursue a master’s degree, followed by a career in structural engineering focusing on either high rises or bridges with an emphasis of prestressed concrete.
If her name sounds familiar, Kwong is also involved in the concrete canoe team, serving as captain of the team this year.
UW CEE senior Iris Kwong is captain of the concrete canoe team.