WEBVTT

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Hello , I'm Colonel Chris Klein ,

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commander of the Army Corps of

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Engineers , Middle East District . Uh ,

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we had a sandbox in our backyard . I

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would spend hours building cities ,

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building road plans , using , uh ,

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bricks and cinder blocks to simulate

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buildings and , you know , developing

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transportation networks . At the time ,

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I didn't know it was STEM . It wasn't

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called STEM . It was just a kid playing

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in a sandbox . And when I realized

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after talking to some . Mentors and

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some teachers , uh , as I was going

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through high school , they're like ,

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you'd be a really good engineer . Uh ,

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what you're doing and , you know , what

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you'd have aptitude in with the maths

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and sciences , you know , is

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engineering and as I looked deeper into

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the different courses of engineering ,

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civil engineering , mechanical

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engineering , you know , what they may

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be , I realized . Look at that .

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Playing in a sandbox is civil

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engineering , and from there I set my

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goal to become a civil engineer . Uh ,

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what I was looking at , uh , as I was

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going through high school and looking

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for colleges were those colleges that

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had a good engineering program . I knew

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I wanted to be a civil engineer . I

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knew I wanted to do something with

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transportation , something with

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vertical construction . Um , it may

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have been not as clearly articulated at

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the time in high school , but when I

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knew what I wanted to do was build and

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create . And so I was looking for

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colleges that did that . Um , it's just

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by happenstance , uh , that I was able

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to be recruited to the military academy

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at West Point that had a phenomenal

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civil engineering program , and

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thankfully they accepted me . My formal

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education is very relevant to what it

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is I do today as the district engineer

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and commander , uh , I have the

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responsibility to , you know , do

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reviews of not only , uh , designs

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and plans for the buildings that we

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build , but also to go out on the

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construction . Sites and using my

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background in civil engineering and now

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geological engineering , I can walk

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onto a construction site and look at

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steel being erected , look at

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electrical lines being run , look at

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plumbing and know what Wright looks

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like . And it's not about necessarily

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me being the expert , it's just being

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the guy who knows the questions to ask

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the experts , so that then we can go

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look , inspect , uh , and ensure that

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the infrastructure that we do develop

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is to the highest of standards . At the

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Engineering Research and Development

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Center we use emerging technology every

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day . We're using it to advance the

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engineering field to places where we

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didn't think we can go and what you

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wanna do , you wanna think of ERIC ,

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the Engineering Research and

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Development Center , as kind of a . Uh ,

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imagination play land . If scientists

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working every day to push the

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boundaries , and putting their

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imaginations to the test using real

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science , what , what I'm really

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excited about is the future , and that

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is how the engineering field is

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starting to incorporate . Artificial

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intelligence and machine learning into

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doing designs and then what that's

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going to enable all of us to do is

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further pursue our dreams , all that

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stuff that's in your imagination ,

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everything that you've ever created .

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Painted , and wanted to turn into

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reality . That's what we can set our

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minds to and apply these more powerful

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tools and even future artificial

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intelligence and advanced materials in

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order to build that . The other thing

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that's really cool that's happening in

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the field is our advances in

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construction . Uh , in construction ,

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we're now moving from regular brick and

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mortar , uh , brick and mortar trades

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where people are building with bricks

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to now doing with 3D printers . Who

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would have known that we'd be 3D

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printing buildings , uh , using

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reinforced concrete ? I think that's

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super cool .

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One of the great things that we have in

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this region that I didn't have when I

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was growing up is the Winchester

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Starbase , and the Winchester Starbase

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gives our 5th graders the opportunity

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to experience STEM in a hands-on

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environment . Building off of that ,

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we've created programs at the Corps of

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Engineers to er to take that background

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knowledge and then immerse our students

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into the the engineering fields through

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the high school internship programs .

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Then we bring students back in when

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they're in college going through their

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engineering programs to be college

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interns . And really , ideally , what

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would be great is to see a student that

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we taught at Starbase on engineering

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principles show up to our high school

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internship program , stay on board with

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us through their college experience ,

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doing the college internship program ,

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and then ultimately become hired by the

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Corps of Engineers , uh , as one of our

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engineering professionals .