Like many in 2021, a lot of us have hopped on the houseplant bandwagon here at APTech. And why not? In addition to lending some color and life to our homes and offices, houseplants relieve stress and promote a sense of tranquility—a welcome phenomenon in light of the highs and lows this year.
While we have taken care to nurture the potted pothos and parlor palms in our homes, this year we also used our technical green thumbs to propagate our pavement engineering and transportation asset management expertise throughout the country and beyond. As the weather turns cooler and it comes time to bring our begonias and bonsais indoors, we’d like to wax euphoric on the virtues of nurturing our plants, our employees, and our business.
A Bumper Crop of New Employees
This year, we put the petal to the metal and welcomed a record-setting eleven new staff members to our floral gardens.
Budding seedlings starting out their careers include five Engineering Associates (Ahmed Warrag, Konrad Kepka, Romona Lopa, Shafkat Alam-Khan, and Stella Cheesman) and two Engineering Technicians (AJ Parcero and Tristan Faro). Still others were seasoned transplants finding new ways to grow, like Director of Marketing Jeremy Simmons, Senior Engineer Mike Boyer, Proposal Coordinator Aja Carten, and Automated Data Collection Coordinator Will Andresen.
With all these new coworkers putting down roots at APTech, we don’t need an almanac to predict a prolific future serving clients like you—but we might need a bigger pot!
New Branches on the APTech Family Tree
While our new employees were settling in, other staff members found further ways to cultivate their growth. In a magnificent bloom this spring, the APTech family tree added several new limbs through a handful of marriages, babies, and even some grandbabies. Celebrating these special family events is at the root of our company culture.
At APTech, family keeps us grounded and happy—just like tending to our indoor foliage.
Unbe-leaf-able Innovations
We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that the innovations and technologies we nurtured this year are the cream of the crop. These are just some of the ways we stay ahead of the curve:
The updates we made this year to IDEA—our web-based interactive pavement management data visualization tool—included network-level mapping, query support, and enhanced user experience, shining light on our clients’ pavement needs.
APTech is trellising the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) efforts to better assess the in situ density of asphalt pavements through demonstrations and implementations of its dielectric profiling system equipment. With this technology, there’s no need to plow up a pavement to see what’s happening beneath the surface.
We are also helping FHWA make the world a greener place through the development of its LCA Pave tool. In the hands of transportation agencies, this tool will help sow the seeds for better decision-making when it comes to considering pavement environmental impacts—and we give that two green-thumbs up!
For State DOT clients in different growing zones throughout the country, ancillary assets are sprouting into their Transportation Asset Management Plans (TAMPs) using sophisticated spreadsheet tools that APTech has developed to estimate needs for future cultivation.
APTech is part of a collaborative team looking to the sky with an ongoing FAA project that is exploring how small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS, or drones) can be used to inspect pavements for pavement management program updates.
Like our monsteras and money trees, we are excited to see how these new technologies blossom, as we continue to help our clients harvest their best solutions.
Returning to Normal at
a Succulent’s Pace
The pandemic uprooted most aspects of daily life for so many, APTechers included. Slowly but surely, however, we proved ourselves hardy. Through a combination of vaccinations, strict adherence to COVID-19 guidance, and unmitigated determination, things are finally starting to feel normal again. Staff members are returning to the office, attending conferences, and cutting loose together at cookouts and tailgates.
So, let’s bust out those snake plants and succulents and celebrate (socially distanced with masks, of course)!
Halcyon Days Ahead
As the leaves of this year wither and fall away, we’re fortunate to have plenty of reasons for optimism in 2022. We’re looking forward to the firm continuing to grow next year, just like our collection of ferns and ficuses. We’re also looking forward to improving and expanding our pavement engineering, transportation asset management, training, and data collection capabilities. And—knock on wood (or similar cellulose fiber materials)—we’re looking forward to spending less time with our houseplants and more time out and about with you, our clients and friends!
From all of us here at APTech, thank you for spending thyme with us.
