From Scratch

Episode #6: Army Forces with Lieutenant Colonel Marisol A. Chalas, Lieutenant Colonel at Parks Reserve Forces Training Area

LTC Marisol A. Chalas began her military career as an enlisted Soldier in July 1990. In 2001 she received her commission as Second Lieutenant in the Aviation branch from the Georgia Military Institute Officer Candidate School. She has operations and strategic experience at the United States Army Forces Command and Headquarters, Department of the Army level. LTC Chalas’ international duties entail Battle Captain and Platoon Leader during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Aviation Liaison in the Dominican Republic under a Combined Joint Task Force. Other assignments include Lean Six Sigma advisor, Force Management and Exchange Officer serving with the Canadian Forces in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and two rotations as Company Commander. LTC Chalas has been the Garrison Commander of Parks Reserve Forces Training Area since June 2022. In March, Lieutenant Colonel Chalas was identified for promotion to the next rank of Colonel.

Episode #5: Materials Engineering with Camille Bernal-Choban, Materials Physicist at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Welcome back to From Scratch: A podcast that explores the world of STEM and start-up. Today’s episode will be a live recording in collaboration with Dublin High School’s Girls Who Code Club. Today, we will be joined by Camille Bernal-Choban who is a materials physicist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After receiving her B.S.s in Nanoengineering and Mathematics/Applied Science at the University of California, San Diego, she decided to take her background in electronic structure calculations and add atomic vibrations. Ms. Bernal-Choban received her Ph.D. in Materials Science from the California Institute of Technology under Dr. Brent Fultz, where her work combined first principles anharmonic calculations and inelastic neutron scattering to investigate vibrational contributions to the high-temperature thermodynamics of materials. Recently, she joined Dr. Peter Abbamonte's group as a Distinguished Grainger Postdoc. Here, she hopes to use X-ray and neutron scattering to investigate hidden orders in materials under extreme conditions. Outside of research, she is a volunteer for local STEM outreach and instructs a research preparation program, where she focuses on making science accessible.

Episode #4: Civil Engineering with Lucky Nagarajan, Geotechnical Specialist and Business Strategy and Growth Leader at Bauer Foundations Corp

Welcome back to episode 4 of From Scratch. Today we will be learning about civil engineering with Lucky Nagarajan. Lucky works as a Business Strategy and Growth Leader for Bauer Foundations Corp, a leader in the execution of complex excavation pits, ground improvement, deep foundations, and vertical seals, utilizing the most up to date equipment and installation techniques. In her present role, she is in charge of working extensively with management and collaborating with her peers in developing national market strategies. Develop, execute, and achieve sustainable growth within the USA and territories. Plays a key role in implementing the growth plan, assisting the team to set priorities, nurture ideas on client care and engagement, risk analysis, getting technology prequalified, specified, and growing organic partnerships. Lead client liaison for numerous clients within the USA and territories.Lucky is a Geotechnical Engineer with 18 years of engineering, project management as well as field experience and business development. She has worked on a variety of foundation solutions in residential, commercial to energy/fuel to ports/marine, dams and mining industries. She has gained her experience working in different parts of the United States learning about challenging geological conditions, varied foundation solutions and cultures. With her diverse experience, she is proud to say that she has visited 48 states out of 50 and worked internationally in Japan, Canada, Mexico, India, and Brazil.She strongly believes that it is very important for every engineer to give back to the community to help the industry grow and support fellow engineers. Lucky has been active in technical associations ASCE, G-I, DFI and USSD. She is DFI Board of Trustee, current chair of Women in Deep Foundations, co-founder of WiDF groups in Metro NYC, India, and Mexico. Also, Co-chair of DFI of India Support Committee and member of board level ASCE G-I committees -Building an Inclusive Civil Engineering Team, Innovations in Geotechnical Engineering.To give back to her original roots, she has been serving as Co-Chair of DFI India Support Committee since 2018. As part of the India chapter, she has also been involved in DFI India Chapter initiatives within the Indian construction industry and launched WiDF India group which has successfully executed programs during conferences and webinar series “Civil Engineering Career – Connect and Grow”. She has also written articles for technical magazines and been invited as speaker to international conferences to advocate for STEM and women in engineering. This has provided a platform to collaborate with Brazil, Mexico, India, and Colombia.Her latest adventure is being the host of “Broadcasting Common Ground” Podcast.

Episode #3: Data Science With Dr. Prashanth H Southekal, Founder of DBP Institute and Author of “Data Quality”

Welcome back to Episode 3 of From Scratch: A podcast that explores the world of STEM and start-ups. Today we will be joined by Dr. Prashant Southekal to learn about data science. Dr. Southekal is the Founder of DBP Institute, a Data and Analytics Consulting, Research, and Education firm based in Calgary, Canada. He is a consultant, author, keynote speaker, board member, and professor of Data & Analytics. Dr. Southekal has advised over 80 organizations including P&G, GE, Shell, Apple, FedEx, and McDonald’s. He is the author of three books — “Data for Business Performance”, "Analytics Best Practices”, and “Data Quality” and writes regularly on data, analytics, and machine learning in Forbes, SAP Insider, and CFO University. He serves on the Editorial Board of the MIT CDOIQ Symposium and is an Advisor at Grihasoft (IN), Evalueserve (CH), and Astral Insights (US). Apart from his consulting and advisory pursuits, he has trained over 3,500 professionals worldwide in Data and Analytics. Dr. Southekal is also an Adjunct Professor of Data and Analytics at IE Business School (Madrid, Spain) and CDO Magazine included him in the top 75 global academic data leaders of 2022. In addition, CIOLook listed Dr. Southekal as the “Ten Most Influential Leaders in Tech to Follow in 2023”. He holds a Ph.D. from ESC Lille (FR), an MBA from Kellogg School of Management (US), and has an ICD.D designation from the Rotman School of Management (CA). He lives between Calgary (CA) and Madrid (ES) with his wife, two children, and a high-energy Goldendoodle dog. Outside work, he loves juggling and cricket.

Episode #2: Product Management with Michelle Stone, Product Manager at PTC

Welcome to the second episode, and first live recording of From Scratch. Today, we will be joined by Michelle Stone. Michelle is passionate about problem solving, process, and product development. She's worked in the manufacturing software space for over 20 years and is an advocate for STEM and sustainability. She currently works as a Product Manager at Arena, a PTC business.