Alumni Profile: Mike Fierro, B.S. Civil Engineering '89 & M.S. Civil Engineering '01

For UAA School of Engineering alumnus Mike Fierro, walking into a beautiful building is like an adventure. His eyes constantly wander up and down, observing every ounce of the interior and mulling over the way the structure was built.

"It's an unconscious thing I do. I constantly bump into people in airports or convention centers because I'm looking up at things like exposed heavy timber trusses or space frames while walking," he said.

As a structural engineer (SE) for Reid Middleton, Mike was the lead SE on several UAA buildings over the last several years, including the UAA/APU Consortium Library, the ANSEP Building and currently the new Health Sciences Building (HSB) that is slated to open August 2011. Last year, the legislature granted planning and design money for engineering buildings at both UAA and UAF. Mike hopes to be involved with the new UAA School of Engineering building when it moves into the construction phase. "I really would like to be the engineer on it! It would be like coming full-circle for me," he said. Mike was also the structural engineer on the new State Crime Lab, an F-22 Flight Simulator on Elmendorf, several office buildings around Anchorage and nearly a half-dozen visitor centers around Alaska, including the award winning Denali and Eielson Visitors Centers.

His job entails lots of design work, coordination with clients and architects and a considerable amount of analysis and mathematical computations. As he likes to describe it, "architects envision and make the buildings pretty, and I figure out how to hold them up."

Mike won an American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) structural award for the design of the UAA/APU Consortium Library. "The architect for the Consortium Library came to my firm with the idea of having curved walls and leaning them outward. It was my job to design an efficient framing system that not only incorporated itself into the unique geometry of the structure, but could simultaneously resist wind and seismic forces. It was one of my most complicated buildings, and is definitely one of my favorites."

Mike is most proud to see the finished product once a building is completed. Seeing the final result, he says, makes it all worth it. "It's a real accomplishment to walk in a building alongside other users and no one knows that you were the one behind the scenes and partially responsible for its creation. It's like 'Wow. I did this.'"

The military is responsible for bringing Mike to Alaska. When he was a teenager, Mike's parents were stationed here for three years. "I immediately fell in love with Alaska," he says.

The men in his family traditionally went to Purdue University, which is where Mike originally intended to go to college. But because of his love for Alaska, he decided to go to UAA his freshman year "for fun." After his first year at UAA ended, he visited the Purdue campus, intending to transfer there. When he got around to looking into Purdue's school of civil engineering, he discovered they had the same curriculum, used the same textbooks and had nearly 200 students per class-much more than UAA. It was UAA's low student-teacher ratio that made Mike decide to stay in Alaska. "It just made more sense. I really got that connection with the professors and students I wanted. We were a close-knit group and created a great camaraderie."

While at UAA pursuing his undergrad in civil engineering, Mike was the president of the student chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). But it wasn't until a year after he graduated that he fell into structural engineering, his current passion. "I love a challenge. Structural engineering is especially rewarding because I get to see the building being built and then used. I feel like I'm contributing to society. It's a very satisfying feeling."

Mike didn't stop with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He began taking night classes to further develop his knowledge, and when he realized he was halfway to completing a master's, he officially registered into the civil engineering graduate program. "I wanted to learn more about what I'm doing. The night classes were great for me, and although it took me a few years, I finished the program taking entirely structural classes," he says.

Starting to feel the need to give back, Mike has recently thought about teaching at UAA. The more time passes, the more he thinks about ways to stay connected with the University. "I want to get more involved with the School of Engineering because these are the people we hire, and are the people who will be doing MY job in 20 years."

Mike says it's important to give back to his alma mater. He has often donated to UAA's School of Engineering and scholarship programs such ASCE, Society of American Military Engineers and Associated General Contractors of America.

Recently, Dr. Bartlett Quimby, a civil engineering professor, took his class over for a tour of the HSB, one of Mike's current projects, that is under construction. "It was a real joy to have one of my structural professors bring his class over to see my project-to see what a former student, who sat in the same classrooms years before, has now accomplished. I hope the tour inspired some of the students." Seeing interest from future students is inspiring to Mike. "I enjoyed answering their questions and the fact they were interested in so many aspects of the design. I even fielded a few questions from Dr. Quimby," he laughs.

It's clear that Mike enjoys what he does. His enthusiasm for his work can be seen with his wandering eyes and his pride as he walks into the UAA/APU Consortium Library, ANSEP building, the HSB or any of the other 40 to 50 buildings Mike has worked on in his career.

He says his challenging job keeps him on his toes, and it's all about making dreams come to life.

"In the past 10 years, I've never said 'no, you can't do that' to an architect. It's like admitting you are giving up. I love the challenge of trying to figure out how to make their vision a reality."