Dream Big: Engineering Our World

Children learn by doing,

by building,

by creating.

Those of us who dream big

can carry that joy of creativity

all through our lives.

Bechtel is proud to present

"Dream Big."

002, -001, 002.

Okay, attitude 25.10, pitch 64.18 plus 002.

We never really saw our world

until they showed it to us.

Through the power of imagination,

they astonish us.

They're called engineers.

With each life-changing creation,

like the International Space Station,

engineers enhance the human experience.

They build civilizations.

Every bridge, every building grows

from an engineer's imagination.

There are now seven billion of us.

And by 2045,

there will be two billion more.

Where will we all live?

Will we have enough clean energy?

The boldest solutions

start with the biggest dreams.

Menzer Pehlivan

grew up in Turkey.

I was a girly girl.

I was a lead in schools plays.

I actually wanted to be an actress.

Until I was 13, when everything changed.

We lived in a high-rise building.

I remember my mother waking me up,

terrified that the building would come down.

I remember watching the people suffering.

From that moment on, I knew what I wanted to do.

Today, I'm a professional engineer in Seattle,

hoping to make structures safer during earthquakes.

I love my job.

And I want kids to be excited about engineering

as much as I am.

So, are you ready for the earthquake?

- Yeah! - Yeah?

Three, two, one.

Let's start slow.

- Which one is... - Go faster.

To design safer buildings,

we study how soil moves during an earthquake.

The engineers test building prototypes

on the big shake table.

To learn more, Menzer studied countries like Nepal,

where earthquakes can be severe.

Nepal is a very poor country,

where most of the houses were built

without any engineering design.

Stone houses, they're an accident waiting to happen.

In 2015,

a massive earthquake struck Nepal.

8,000 lost their lives.

But some survived.

Including the miracle baby,

buried in the rubble for 22 hours.

To do her part, Menzer took time off from work

and flew to Nepal

to join a team of fact-finding engineers.

We collect data on ground failures

before the evidence washes away.

We need to work fast.

Namaste. Namaste.

Namaste. Namaste.

Different types of soils act differently.

Some soils act like a Jell-0.

Others act like a liquid

and lose all their strength.

Farmers led us to a field,

where carrots popped out of the ground--

a clue that this soil acted like a liquid

during the earthquake.

That's what we call liquefaction.

I remember when I was 13.

I know what these kids are going through.

The emotional aftershock of an earthquake

can last for years.

This is why I became an engineer.

After leaving Nepal,

Menzer went to San Francisco.

Here, engineers had a unique challenge--

designing the city's tallest skyscraper

at a site prone to liquefaction.

The engineers solved it from the ground up.

Menzer's team tours the site,

where engineers sunk massive concrete columns

all the way down to bedrock

to resist earthquakes.

Keeping people safe

has always been the heart and soul of engineering.

II'

The first emperor of China faced a problem:

Mongol warriors were invading from the north.

So the emperor's engineers began building something

that would preserve their civilization

for almost 2,000 years.

The Great Wall grew to be 13,000 miles long...

the largest structure ever built by humans.

After centuries of erosion and earthquakes,

much of the wall survives.

Steve Burrows, an engineer from England,

has come to investigate.

It's really tough to study the wall

when it stands there right on a knife edge

on the top of a mountain.

But we have our ways.

This is lidar,

the laser imaging device.

The lidar showed that the most precisely built parts

are standing well today.

However, miles away, badly built sections of the wall

are also still standing.

Why?

500 years ago, the builders added

a secret ingredient to their mortar:

sticky rice.

Adding sticky rice and lime to the mortar,

it makes the mortar more elastic

'cause it allows the wall to stretch and contract

depending on the temperature.

Sometimes the best solution

is the simplest--

the one staring up at you

from your dinner plate.

In western China,

across the highest bridges on Earth,

people are moving from farms to cities.

Shanghai is now the most populous city in the world--

24 million people.

But there's a problem.

No more space to build.

Where can they all live?

Engineers squeezed an entire urban district

into one city block...

by going vertical.

They envisioned China's tallest building,

the Shanghai Tower,

rising 128 floors high

with space for 16,000 people.

But the taller the structure,

the more it flirts with Mother Nature.

Each summer,

typhoons blast the city.

The Shanghai Tower would soon

become a huge target.

But the engineers had

some tricks up their sleeve.

By twisting the outer skin 120 degrees,

the wind safely glides around the tower.

Here, the problem of population density

has been met.

All thanks to the ingenuity

of a twist.

Wind is an intriguing chaflenge

for engineers of all ages.

Menzer makes a game of it.

Okay, this competition will count as ten points.

And the tallest skyscraper that resists the wind

will get five extra.

Yay! Excited?

All right.

Now, remember, planning is important.

Before cutting...

make sure what you're building.

Building these paper skyscrapers

teach kids the most important thing...

engineering is fun.

Oh, it's getting...

Oh, no!

In 1940,

the newly opened Tacoma Narrows Bridge, near Seattle,

earned the nickname Galloping Gertie.

A moderate wind gusting to 40 miles an hour

made the bridge bounce...

resulting in collapse.

Fortunately, no one was killed.

Engineers learn from catastrophes.

New insights about the impact of wind on suspension bridges

have led to better designs.

Near Menzer's home in Seattle,

two safer bridges have replaced Galloping Gertie.

A large bridge can connect people.

And so can a small one.

II'

After graduating from college,

a young bridge engineer had a choice to make--

accept a high-paying I°b

or follow her heart.

Today, Avery Bang

leads a team of passionate engineers

building foot bridges in poor countries.