Charles W. W. Mitchell, III, P.E.
2017 Young Engineer of the Year
Charlie is a leader who takes initiative and is collaborative and considerate. He has made a huge impact on the ASCE Maryland Section and in the site/civil group at RK&K. Charlie has demonstrated an ability to identify a need, generate a sustainable solution, and execute the solution with all stakeholders’ buy-in. He identifies inefficiencies and offers appropriate, strategic fixes to address them in a way that is to scale with the existing resources.
Charlie’s contributions to the Maryland Section are an ever-growing list. He breathed life into and revamped the Section website by making daunting processes easy and accessible to contributors. He gave members ownership and equipped them with necessary tools. These efforts required extensive coordination with the board and committees -- individuals with whom he had varying levels of familiarity, but whose every need he anticipated. As a result, the website is more useful and appealing. Section and committee content is more relevant, and services such as a job posting board help solicit sponsors and serve members. With meaningful information regarding website usage, the Section may enhance its communication processes. Charlie also established an email structure, maintaining members’ access to the right contacts without changing addresses due to succession of officers. It has improved the Section’s ability to provide timely service and information.
He reworked the reservation, payment collection, tracking, and check-in mechanisms for section meetings. He improved reporting with PayPal usage, including the development of reconciliation reporting, and set up credit card payments for ASCE events. Some of the results include shorter check-in lines and a reduction in unpaid registrations, helping the Section’s bottom line. Furthermore, Charlie lowered the Section’s web costs by a factor of 10.
Charlie’s contributions at work further demonstrate his innovation, understanding of technological tools, and aspirations for efficiency and quality. Charlie is in RK&K’s site/civil group and has experience developing design documents and details, coordinating approvals and permitting, interacting with clients, and engaging in GIS mapping efforts. Just like he did for the ASCE Maryland Section, Charlie also generated organizational procedures, protocols, and best practices at work, including setting up a filing system for project folders adopted by the group. Charlie has presented software tools to his team that have been implemented for design and spotlighted in marketing. He has sought training and certifications above and beyond his degrees, staying current with the latest software, design developments, and guidelines.
Charlie produces well-researched, workable solutions and has harnessed certain technology, adapting them to his team’s needs. He communicates these new practices and has ushered previously-hesitant groups into excitedly embracing these changes.
He achieved his Professional Engineer registration this year. Charlie also took the initiative to become a SiteOPS certified user.