Writer. Game Designer.
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference 2015 (WEFTEC) down in Chicago for a day. As this was the first professional conference I have ever attended, I was looking forward to the experience and learning about the latest and greatest in Water Technology. WEFTEC is North … Continue reading Any color, as long as it’s black
History Lesson incoming. Having gone to school in New York, I'm often asked why I decided to come back to the Midwest after graduation. One of the main reasons I came to Milwaukee to start my professional career was due to the city’s history and optimistic future with water and water technology. I thought I’d spend this post … Continue reading MKE H20 101
Never before in our modern society has water been such a priority for individuals, cities and nations, and it will only continue to grow in importance. However, even with such increased presence and general acknowledgement of the problems at hand, there seems to be a lack of public understanding of the issues at stake and … Continue reading New Solutions to Old Problems
When I first saw the teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, I knew it was a movie that I wanted to see. It was a simple trailer in terms of special effects and action, but it spoke deeply and directly to the audience. When the first trailer came out, there was very little information on … Continue reading Should I stay or should I go?
In a previous post, I brought up the idea of making our city’s infrastructure more aesthetically pleasing. Infrastructure – almost by definition – is hidden, buried underground or constructed in a far-off area away from the central city. By making our infrastructure aesthetically pleasing and placing it at the center of attention, the public has … Continue reading The Art and Engineering of Infrastructure
The most common criticism of the fantasy genre is that it can lead to unhealthy escapism. Why settle for the boring, drab world in which you live, when you could immerse yourself in a world full of flying beasts, floating cities, and big baddies that need to be taken down? For me, fantasy stories are … Continue reading Our Magical World
The University of Minnesota recently announced that they will be offering Environmental Engineering as an undergraduate major in the upcoming Fall 2014 semester. This led to many interested engineering students rejoicing, and still many more scratching their heads and asking, “What’s Environmental Engineering?” If you too, are scratching your head wondering whether or not the … Continue reading What is Environmental Engineering?
Despite being essential for the function of society, infrastructure is often shunned or avoided by the general public. Facilities such as wastewater treatment plants, landfills, and gas plants often have a difficult time being constructed as no one wants to live near an ugly, smelly, or “dirty” site. While some transportation infrastructure, such as bus … Continue reading Service that Inspires
What we used to call Nature is no more. Almost every part of the world has been changed due to human activity, whether by direct action, or by the indirect change of the global climate. The mark of humanity is distinctly imprinted upon the Earth, for better and for worse. As stewards of the planet … Continue reading Changing Nature to Protect Nature
Last Friday, I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture by Professor Mark Van Loosdrecht of Delft University of Technology. The title of his talk, “Innovations in Wastewater Treatment,” immediately caught my attention when I first heard it, as I am always on the lookout for radical changes in infrastructure systems and processes. According to … Continue reading Infrastructure and Entrepreneurism
Ethan Yen 