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Our Common, Noble Cause

5/1/2018

The Concrete Convention and Exposition in Salt Lake City, UT, was especially memorable for me. The many words of congratulations for my upcoming year as ACI President were encouraging and inspiring. I intend to use the presidential platform to share ACI's vision, affirm its technical strength, and invite partnership with open arms. ACI thrives when its membership is strong and active.

ACI is a great and healthy organization. The Institute brings together the best minds of industry, we have drawn the contributions of outstanding researchers, we have an amazing following of energetic students, and we have a top-notch professional staff under the leadership of Ron Burg, ACI Executive Vice President. Together we are the American Concrete Institute, the most powerful advocate for concrete construction in the world. We are joined by many organizations who are friends and allies in the cause, but ACI stands out as a leader in its size, scale, and reach. Our forward-looking attitude and commitment to creating new knowledge places us in service to all the communities of the world.

Every year, the incoming President is given the opportunity to highlight important themes, so I would like to follow that tradition.

The priorities I want to emphasize are urgent aspects of the ACI strategic plan. As a university professor, I'm inclined to frame these priorities in terms of research, teaching, and service—the pillars of academic work and the criteria universities commonly consider for promotion of faculty members.

Research is priority one. If ACI aspires to be the knowledge center for all things concrete, research should be a cornerstone. Research embodies our curiosity, creativity, and discovery of new ways of looking at old problems. ACI needs to up the ante in support of research, and the plans to do so are in motion today, by the infusion of additional resources into the ACI Foundation. This research funding is directed to address technical needs identified by ACI committees. The potential long-term impact of funding from the ACI Foundation is tremendous, and I encourage you all to see how you might personally contribute to its success.

Research impacts everyone in ACI. Of course, there are students and academics at ACI who conduct research projects, but there are also leaders of industry who put research into practice. Research is important to the industry because it can improve design, reduce risk, and increase quality.

Things are a-changing in the concrete industry. Venture capital is coming into the construction space because investors believe opportunities exist for innovative products, increases in productivity, and accelerated construction. Let's help make it happen.

Teaching is a priority because educating the next generation is a core mission of ACI. ACI has enjoyed great success in its certification programs, and ACI needs to continue to build on that success. ACI has increased its student membership and number of student chapters, and the ACI Foundation has increased its scholarship levels. ACI staff engineers are increasing their role at ACI Chapter meetings, and the ACI Ambassador program is aiding our program for professional development.

Service is a priority because helping others in pursuing the best use of concrete provides a higher purpose for individual members and the Institute. While international outreach has been an ACI goal for some years, a new urgency is evident in the dramatic expansion and investment seen in the international marketplace. One immediate challenge is to achieve successful launch of the new ACI international office in Dubai in 2018. ACI has strong allies around the world and we need to invest in those friendships. They include: our friends at RILEM and fib in Europe; our friends at the Concrete Institute of Australia; our new connections to Vietnam; our loyal old friends in Canada, South America, and Mexico; our friends in Korea at KCI and Japan at JCI; and our strong international chapters in India and around the world. We are ACI and our members represent the entire world.

As a final thought, I want everyone to see their work at ACI as a noble cause that draws us together as a community with common purpose. It is noble because at the end of the day, we are all working to advance the quality of life of people all around the world. Buildings, bridges, roads, and the rest of the built infrastructure make commerce possible, jobs possible, education possible, and health and safety possible. We build the world, and we come together in ACI to do it at the highest level.

David A. Lange