"Fresno State professor Manideep Tummalapudi gained firsthand heavy civil experience through a faculty engagement program led by ASCE and The Beavers.
Manideep “Mani” Tummalapudi spent the summer embedded with FlatironDragados teams across Northern California, gaining field experience at Orinda, Upper San Leandro and Anderson Dam before completing a project controls rotation in Concord.
“What this experience gave me cannot be found in any textbook,” Tummalapudi said.
Tummalapudi joined FlatironDragados through the Civil Engineering Industry-Faculty Engagement Program, a Summer 2026 pilot created through a partnership of the American Society of Civil Engineers and The Beavers. The program places university faculty members in paid industry positions so they can take current practices and expectations back to their students.
“This program creates a two-way exchange between universities and industry,” said David Dzombak, Hamerschlag University Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University and member of the ASCE Innovation in Civil Engineering Education Working Group.
“Faculty return to the classroom with a current, well-informed understanding of how projects come together, while companies build stronger relationships with the universities preparing future professionals,” said Leslie Nolen, Director of Educational Activities, ASCE.
Tummalapudi did more than observe. He performed intern, field engineer and project engineer duties while working with project managers, superintendents, engineers and field teams.
He reviewed project documents, participated in production and schedule discussions, and gained exposure to safety, quality, costs and project controls. He also saw how field production connects with schedules, cost reports, owner deliverables and broader project commitments.
The rotation expanded his understanding of heavy civil construction. Building on his previous construction experience, Tummalapudi gained a new perspective on the scale of the work and the role of equipment, logistics, sequencing and stakeholder coordination.
One of the most meaningful parts of the summer was watching student interns develop. Tummalapudi saw students arrive uncertain about their roles and become confident contributors within three or four weeks. Coaching them in real time helped him identify the technical knowledge, professional skills and support students need to succeed on active projects.
“By bringing faculty members into our project teams, we can help them better prepare students for heavy civil careers while strengthening the university relationships that support our future talent needs,” said Richard Grabinski, President, FD - USA
Tummalapudi plans to bring the experience to the Heavy Civil Construction and Advanced Construction Operations courses he teaches at Fresno State. Along with technical knowledge, he will place greater emphasis on communication, meeting preparation, requests for information, submittals, project relationships, accountability and leadership.
“FlatironDragados showed me what it truly looks like to develop the next generation of construction professionals, not just technically, but as communicators, leaders and problem solvers,” Tummalapudi said. “I am going back to my classroom with a renewed sense of purpose and a clear mission: to graduate students who are ready not just to work in this industry, but to lead it."
