Derek Fitzgerald

My name is Derek and I'm currently a senior at the University of California, Berkeley. I am studying Civil/Environmental Engineering and will graduate this May 2014 with a Bachelors of Science.

I grew up in Denver, Colorado and attended high school in Corpus Christi, Texas. When the time came to attend college, I decided to head to the west coast to attend the number one public university in the world.

Throughout my time at Berkeley, I have become very involved with the campus both inside and outside the classroom. I got involved as a coordinator with the Leadership Award Scholars Association (LASA) my first year. The organization is devoted to building connections with Cal Alumni and current students, and providing leadership and professional development opportunities for students on campus. The following year I moved up into the role of Overnight Stay Program director. The Overnight Stay Program is one of LASA's premiere flagship events that invites admitted high school seniors to the campus to experience life as a Cal student over a two day program. Following my time as OSP director, I moved into the Executive Director role for the organization where I have served for the past two years.

On campus, I also play alto saxophone in the Cal Marching Band. I served as a Cal Student Orientation (CalSO) leader the summer after my freshmen year, and have since worked on the administrative end of the program since that time. For some time I worked in the Office of Student Development as an administrative assistant, and then moved to the Office of Learning and Development where I helped prepare trainings and evaluations for Student Affairs staff and managers.

In the Civil Engineering department, I completed the following academic projects:

• Optimization of airport taxiway system to reduce fuel consumption, decrease taxiway time, and reduce likelihood of taxiway incursions, primarily at SFO.
• Statistical Analysis of airport runway incursions and runway safety, primarily at LAX; analysis of airline fuel burn; MATLAB.
• LBMS Schedule Planning and Optimization of simulated construction projects to learn Vico Schedule Planner/Control.
• Analysis of Change Orders and their impact on construction projects with focus on Kaiser Oakland Medical Center.

Since then, I have interned as a Project Engin