February is an exciting month for most of the engineering societies, and AAAEA is no exception, as I mentioned in the January newsletter. AAAEA will celebrate Engineer’s week (E-week), February 18-22, 2008, in several ways during the month of February. This year, we started our student outreach on January 24th at the Aqsa School were our engineers participate in judging the annual science fair and on January 30th, by participating in career day at Universal School in Bridgeview. Several engineers from AAAEA visited and showed a presentation about careers in engineering. Thanks to the engineers who took time from their busy work schedule to participate in these events. Please visit our website for photos. On February 5, 2008, I participated in the IIT Bridge Building Contest at the regional level were more than 150 contestants participated in this true engineering contest. On February 8, our Essay & Poster Contest Committee announced the list of winners for the 2008 AAAEA Essay/Poster contest. Below is a list of the winner from each group. The 1st place winner will receive a $100 check. We also decided to award the 2nd place winner a $25 check. All winners are invited to attend the Chicago-land Washington Award Banquet on Friday 2/22/08 and the IIT Du Page E-Week Expo on Saturday 2/23/08.

Group	Winner Place & Prize	Student Name	Grade	Essay/ Poster Topic about	School
3rd & 4th Grade	1st Place $100	Julia Asfour	3rd	Her Dad - Shaker Asfour	Universal
3rd & 4th Grade	2nd Place $25	Arefa Suleiman	3rd	Her Uncle	Richard Edwards
5th & 6th Grade	1st Place $50 each	Lauren Brooks / LeiAnn Watanuki	6th	George DeMestral	Gray M. Sanborn
5th & 6th Grade	2nd Place $25	Jenna Hammad	3rd	Dr. Martin Cooper	Bridgeview
7th & 8th Grade	1st Place $100	Yousef Hammad	8th	Alexander G. Bell	Wilkins Junior High
7th & 8th Grade	2nd Place $25	Kesheena Heard	8th	Her step dad - Steven Hill	Sandburg Middle

Congratulations to the winners, the proud parents and the teachers. Thanks to all students who participated and to the teachers who encouraged their students to participate and good luck next year. All participants will receive a certificate of participation and acknowledgement of their essay/poster too. Please visit our website to see this year essays and posters and to learn more about this contest. I would like to thank the contest judges who took time to evaluate and judge 30 essays and posters and announce the winners on time: Dr. Soliman Khudeira, P.E., S.E. (Chicago DOT- Division of Engineering) Committee Chair, Dr. Emilie Giraudon, P.E. from Chicago DOT- Division of Engineering) and Dr. Ghaffar Kazkaz, from Illinois Tool Works.

AAAEA will also participate in the Chicago-land Washington Award Banquet on February 23, 2008 (Friday evening) were I will be seated at the Dias table representing our association. On February 23, 2008, AAAEA will participate in the IIT Du Page E-Week Expo. Our program start at 11:00 AM and ends at 3:00 PM. We will have an interactive displays, show and tell and presentation about careers in engineering and at 2 pm, we will test a balsa wood structure to destruction. Students can guess the maximum load that the structure can hold before break. Winners will receive a prize and will be acknowledged on our website. Please join us for a day full of fun activities for the entire family and I encourage you to bring the entire family and please reach to your school teachers and encourage them to attend. This expo is open to public and it is FREE.

The success of the AAAEA continues upon the backbone of great technical seminars and conferences that bring useful information to our members. In February, we will have Ms. Kerry Ballotti Nutter from Illinois Tollway. Her presentation will provide a quality focus to program management disciplines such as engineering management, construction management, quality assurance, policy and procedure development on public-sector mega-programs, and public-private partnerships. We encourage all of you to attend this dinner seminar and all upcoming monthly seminars.

In addition to these activities, the expansion of membership is important for the survival of our organization. On January 25th, 2008, our student members at University of Illinois at Chicago formed an AAAEA Student Chapter with the help of their student chapter’s faculty advisor Dr. Mohsen Issa. This is the third student chapter formed since February 2007. Please see my article in March 2007 Newsletter “AAAEA Student Chapters will Bridge the Gap”. http://www.aaaea.org/Newsletters/2007_Mar.pdf

Last but not least, our Annual Social Dinner will be held at Alhambra Restaurant on March 29, 2008. The space is limited to 230 attendees and as of now, we sold 215 tickets. Tickets are almost sold out; I encourage you to call now to get your tickets. I hope to see each one of you at our February Dinner Seminar and at our Annual Social Dinner at Alhambra.

Sincerely,
Jamal Grainawi, P.E., S.E.
AAAEA President

Illinois News

UIC Chapter
On Friday,Jan. 25, 2008 team from AAAEA visited with about 20 students from UIC to introduce AAAEA to the engineering students at the University of Illinois at Chicago.The team included our president Jamal Grainawi,our chairman ,our trustee Abed Gholeh,Dr. Mohsen Issa,and Bilal Almasri.
After the team discussed the Chicago Experience Power Point Presentation,the students decided to for a student chapter at UIC,and a steering committee was selected to lead the efforts.The chapter adviser is Dr. Issa.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the students who attended the meeting for their time and interest,as well as our team. Event photos

VA, DC and MD AAAEA Chapter
The Arab American Association of Engineers and Architects (AAAEA) Steering Committee held the first meeting on 02/02/2008. All members had attended this meeting to select the executive board members to start the registration process in the state of Maryland. The new chapter will be for VA, DC and MD area.

The committee elected the following memers for:

A) President: Eissa Haj-Hamad, P.E.
B) Vice President: Samir Alqutri, P.E.
C) Secretary: Hatim Hajj, P.E.
D) Treasurer: Mohammad Ayyoubi, P.E.
E) IT: Maher Darwish, P.E.
Next committee meeting will be held at the City of Baltimore on 3/8/2008 to approve the by-lawes.
The committee approved the election date. The election will be held end of May, 2008.
Eissa Haj-Hamad, P.E.
Acting President

Universal school Career day
AAAEA joined Universal school on Career day,which was held on 1/30/08.Three members of our association joined others and exposed students to the engineering field.
Dr. Mousa Issa,Talal Almasri,and Salem Akhras,volunteered and spent most of the day at school with student.Prizes were giving to the students by our members.
I would like to thank all volunteers for their time,energy,and efforts in supporting this event ans supporting our kids.

Community Corner

1-AAAEA has started a new initiatives with Universal school to teach the teachers math.This new service to our community started on Saturday 2/9/08.

2-AAAEA is resuming an old program to serve the community.An arrangement made with the Arab American Family Services(AAFS)to assist their staff by educate them on using different aspects of the computer.This service will start on Friday 2/15/08,and will continue as needed.

3-AAAEA has started a new ACT review course for our students on 1/26/08 and it will end on 4/12/08.We meet with 8 students every Saturday for about 3 hours. A prize will be given to the student who improve between two test with the highest difference.The gift is a razr Luxury Edition with the blue tooth,case,charger,computer cable,and other goodies.I would like to thank our Raed Melhim for the great gift.

4-Moussa Issa, the Educational Committee Chairman of AAAEA was a science judge for the annual science fair on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, from 8:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m at Aqsa School.

5-Moussa Issa, the Educational Committee Chairman of AAAEA was speaker in the Annual Career Day being held on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at Universal School. (see attached letter)

Technical Article: New Construction Home Inspections- Part 2-By Dr. Maher Abu-Mallouh, P. E., H. I., A & H Engineering, P. C..

   The Often a client will call and ask me why they should spend the money on a home inspection for a newly built home. After all, shouldn’t a brand new home be perfect? I have two words for those clients: Construction Oversight.
   Construction oversights are when in the process of building a home the installation of components or systems are inadvertently left out. A quality home inspection will find construction oversights and then the contractor can take care of them before the close of the real estate transaction. Approximately 10% of the homes I inspect are new construction and about 90% of those homes have a few oversights. A short story from my experience that the buyer has requested a new Jacuzzi to be added after the initial signing of the contract. The Jacuzzi was added at double the original price if it was included in the contract. Then, when the Jacuzzi was installed the corner tile end pieces were put in without grout just glued in place. My inspection saved the new buyer many future problems and costly repairs if water happens to get behind the tiles.
   Common oversights that I find include incomplete electrical systems, incomplete plumbing, gutters that are incorrectly installed, missing roofing components, fireplaces that are incomplete and many others. The reasons construction oversights occur vary from inadvertent omissions to just plain bad construction practices. The building of a new home is a complex choreography of many subcontractors. Each subcontractor is dependent on everyone doing their jobs in a given time frame. When there are delays the scheduling of the subcontractors quickly becomes a nightmare. Subcontractors may be working on many homes at one time and without careful coordination inadvertent oversights occur. An experienced home inspector will find these problems and help reduce the headaches of the buyer before they purchase the home.
   An inspector who completes phase inspections and construction inspection will have the experience to find construction oversights in the completed home. For clients who are purchasing a custom built home it is wise to hire an inspector to act as their advocate to make sure the quality of construction is the best possible. Home inspectors who participate in the construction process help prevent costly mistakes for the home owner.
   The home inspector also helps you understand your new home and its systems. I like to show the new home owner where to reset circuit breakers for various systems like the garage or outdoor electrical outlets. I inform the new home owner on what to expect in the first year. For example, it is typical to have a few nail pops here and there as the home settles. I point out areas of the yard where settling may occur and how to prevent drainage issues that may result in a wet basement. The builder also may offer a home warranty and I set a date to remind the new home owner when their warranty is about to expire. I would not count on the builder to remind you when your warranty is about to expire, some builders are counting on a short memory. I offer the service of doing a follow up inspection to find specific issues that the builder should address when servicing the home warranty before it expires. In many cases I uncover warranty issues which cost more to resolve than the cost of the follow up inspection and I like to save my clients money.
   Hiring an experienced home inspector to complete a diligent inspection of your newly constructed home is a wise decision. Be informed about your new home and make a successful transition. A home inspector who works for your best interests will find those oversights that may affect your pocket book and your family’s safety.

Date: Tuesday Feb 12, 2008

Interview with Mustafa A. Mahamid, Phd. PE. Chariman of national steering commitee

Q1-What does your your committee do?
  The committee name is: The National Steering Committee for Arab American Engineers, Architects and Computer Professionals. The committee deals with all issues related to the Future National Association, such as the structure of the national association, by-laws, legal issues, mission statement, name, and logo for the national association.

Q2-Who serves on your committee?
Mustafa Mahamid, Chairman,
Maha Alsadi, Co-chair,
George Ghareeb, Secretary,
Raed Milhem, West coast representative,
Sermed Saif, Midwest representative,
Maher Abdelqader, East coast representative, and
Hosam Salman Southern states representative

Q3-On an average,how often do you meet?
  The National Steering Committee meets on a conference call on a monthly basis, and planning to have a semi-annual physical meeting in April

Q4-What are you working on now?
  We have established subcommittees to work on all the issues mentioned above. all committees work simultaneously and provide updates to the steering committee each month.

Q5-Why the committee's work is important?
  Our committee is the foundations for the national association. the steering committee is the best way to study, investigate, answer all questions, and prepare all the necessary items for our future association.

Q6-What is the results of the 9/1/07 National meeting?
  September 1st meeting was held in the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI, was attended by representatives from 10 states who discussed core issues that form the basis of the national association. The delegates has selected a steering committee to work on the different tasks mentioned above and produced a declaration about the 2nd national conference. http://aaaea.org/pdfs/2007_SecondNationalConferenceDeclaration.pdf

Members Corner

Congratulations to Mustafa Mahamid for passing his California PE licence.

Congratulaltions to Mohammad Rashed for his new babe boy. God Bless.

Congratulations for Ashraf Al-hayek on his engagement.

Congratulations for Mark Bendok on passing his SE Exam.

Congratulations to Rashed Gulaid for landing a new job with Alfred Benesch,via AAAEA network.Best of luck.

"Thanks to AAAEA networking I was able to get an employment offer from Alfred Benesch Engineering Firm in Chicago. I have since accepted the offer and will be joining Alfred Benesch as a Project Manager on March 3rd, 2008. I am equally thankful for all the advice and encouragement that I received from my friends and former colleagues ( all members of AAAEA). Thank you AAAEA. It really helps to be a member and I encourage other members to utilize networking feature of the organization."

Jokes of the Month

Q: What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?
A: Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets.. :)

The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with an Accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with an Arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

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