2.1: 

My uncle, Patrick Gillespie, is an Environmental Engineer for TRC Environmental Corp. He studied at Syracuse University and is currently a registered Professional Engineer. TRC as a company handles work such as remediation, air quality, permitting, sustainability, and audits, as well as health and safety and industrial hygiene. For the past several years Patrick has been working in TRC as engineering management. Some of the responsibilities, or activities, of this position are managing personal, client relationships, business development, and profit and loss responsibilities. A lot of what my uncle spoke about that lined up with the textbooks description was the emphasis on remediation and sustainability. My uncle however has moved u to a managerial position, which leaves his activity, focused more towards managing people and the company as opposed to working out in the field to directly maintain the environment.

2.13:  Penny Long-board.

      A Material Engineer is going to be extremely necessary in the production of this product. This engineer is going to help decide what material is best for the wheels of the board, the actual board itself as well as the trucks of the board ( the metal parts that hold the wheels to the board). This must all be figured out to assure durability in the settings it will be used in along with its functionality in the same settings.

      A Mechanical engineer is also going to needed. The mechanical engineer can take the design and materials and plan out how the board is going to ride best with all of the mechanics figured out.

      Research, development, testing, design, analysis, systems, and sales engineers are all extremely important in the overall production and sales of this product. The research engineer will look into other products in the same field to pick up on different ideas that can be or must be used to create this product. Development engineer will work with the research engineer to take all the research and ideas and make them into a real thing. Testing engineers will have to verify the integrity reliability and quality of the product before it is sold to the public. Design engineers will assure that the product is fitting for its use. Analysis engineers will work with the design, research and development engineers to make sure that everything is running as it should. Systems engineers will overlook the overall design, development, and operation of the product. Sales engineer will have all the scientific and mathematical knowledge necessary to answer any questions consumers may have to aid in the sale of the product.

2.4: 

      Civil and Environmental engineering are two fields of engineering that are similar in their objectives and frequently overlap in their projects. One huge problem that both of these fields face is funding. There are countless amounts of problems that need to be worked on but finding the money to do so is extremely difficult. A large problem that was made apparent in the recent hurricanes is the fact that our electric and phone cables are above ground, held up by wood beams. These power lines are extremely vulnerable to trees landing on the lines as well as the wood beams breaking. A great solution to this problem would be to put the lines underground. Unfortunately the amount of money that it would take to do this all around this country is extensive to say the least.

      Another problem that both of these fields of engineering face is working around preexisting infrastructure. This problem comes hand-in-hand with the money issue but is also a controversy on other fronts. When there are problems with highways, bridges, or other forms of transportation it causes a large problem. When bridges are being built or fixed it takes several years. This is also several years of the bridge being out of service, sending commuters all different ways, extending traveling time and forming congestion. Another similar problem is that any underground work that has to be done would involve tearing down anything above it, be it houses, schools, buildings etc. This in itself causes many different problems.