E-Week Spotlight: Yaping Chi, PE

Yaping Chi is a Professional Civil Engineer with the Water Resources team based out of the West Fargo Sheyenne Plaza office. She has 8 years of Engineering experience and works on a variety of projects involving floodplain management, stormwater modeling, legal drain design, and hydrologic and hydraulic modeling. These project owners primarily consist of cities, water resource districts and developers throughout the state of North Dakota. Yaping graduated from North Dakota State University in 2012 with a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering and is an active member of the F-M Engineer’s Club (Chapter 4) and the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

What drew you to engineering as a career?
“My father is a Construction Engineer. In my childhood, I enjoyed watching him working on the blueprints and building structures as they were designed. I thought that was amazing.”

What drew you to your practice area?
“I grew up in a coastal city in China and then came to Fargo where flooding has always been an issue. Now I get to design projects that help our communities reduce potential flooding issues and design better infrastructure. That is why I find my work on water resource projects so rewarding.”

Do you have any advice for someone interested in this job/field?
“I think communication is as important as design. We work as a team, not only within a group but also collaboratively with other groups. Better communication and teamwork make projects go smoothly and efficiently.”