Intro [00:00:02]:
Welcome to The Rollins Way, the podcast that redefines consulting with a purpose driven focus on delivering exceptional value. Join us as we explore the principles, people, and projects shaping the future of infrastructure management. This is where innovation meets purpose, and every conversation delivers insights to inspire. Let's dive in.

James Bryant [00:00:26]:
Today, we're talking to Alicia McConnell, Aerial Technologies Advisor at Rollins Infrastructure Consult. Could you provide a little bit about your background and your professional journey?

Alicia McConnell [00:00:38]:
Sure. Whenever I first started out, I started in my career as a junior engineer. I graduated from SIUE here in Illinois and started right off. I was an intern doing all sorts of normal transportation engineer projects, ended up moving to Madison, Wisconsin, continuing my engineering experience. I remember having aspirations to be the best project manager that my company had ever seen. I really liked all the aspects of coordination, everything that went into transportation engineering. During that time, personally, I pursued my private pilot's license. It took about a year that takes a knowledge test and a practical examination.

Alicia McConnell [00:01:24]:
I took my practical exam. It's called a check ride with the FAA. And then I came back to my office at that point, and there was an email sitting in my inbox saying, is anyone interested in joining the drone program? At that point in time, the FAA required you to have private pilot's license, sport, recreational, commercial. And I asked my boss at the time, I said, could I go ahead and do this? I literally just passed my exam an hour ago. And he said, sure. Because at that time, commercial UAS, as it was called, was starting to become more, like, infrastructure and a little bit recreational, but more so, you know, not something flying overseas that was, you know, had explosives attached to it. No longer focused on military applications, but really the commercial side of it. So part of that small group, we you don't know what you don't know when you're getting into something that has no established guidelines or really rules of operation.

James Bryant [00:02:33]:
Okay.

Alicia McConnell [00:02:33]:
FAA did have some guidelines there, but really the the operational side of things was missing. And in an engineering consulting firm, trying to understand transportation applications of the use of drones when you don't really know the equipment and it's never been done before, it's, you know, wading neck deep into dark water.

James Bryant [00:02:55]:
What made you explore getting your pilot's license in the first place?

Alicia McConnell [00:02:59]:
So that that goes back to somewhat of a personal story. My I met my now husband through a friend. He ended up calling me and saying, can I take you out to lunch? And I was like, you live 3 hours away. You can't just take me out to lunch. And he was like, could you pick me up at the airport? If that's not a bold move, I don't know what is. So anyway, he flew up to see me. I I mean, I took to it immediately. Anytime we were up in the air flying, I would choose to fly.

Alicia McConnell [00:03:27]:
I pursued my pilot's license very shortly after that.

James Bryant [00:03:31]:
Okay. We started with you passing your pilot's license test. You come back to the office. Here's an opportunity. What made you want to explore that opportunity?

Alicia McConnell [00:03:41]:
Well, I know we've mildly discussed this in one of our previous conversations, but I thought about it quite a bit. And it that was a split second decision that literally changed the course of my life. You know, my boss had something to do with it. But understanding, I told you initially, kind of my aspirations were to be, like, a great project manager. After I managed, you know, deputy managed 2 projects, I was like, wow. This is a lot of the same stuff, different day. And while I did like the complexities of that type of management, I really liked the idea of exploring something unknown. This could be revolutionary for engineers, transportation professionals, construction personnel, surveyors, and we were just at the tip of the iceberg at that point.

Alicia McConnell [00:04:29]:
I think back to some of my earlier projects and it's like, man, I did not know what I did not know. And we made the best of it, but we made sure we documented lessons learned as part of it, and we weren't recreating the wheel. I found other people in my same situation, and we just shared information. High tides rise all ships, so let's make sure that we are advocating for safe practices and best practices for high quality data collection. Things like that. There's still a competitive nature to it. You know that in the consulting world. But at the same time, there was also a a bit of wonder that came with it as well.

Alicia McConnell [00:05:05]:
Like, how do you actually do this where it makes a big difference in what we are providing to our clients? And that's what I loved exploring.

James Bryant [00:05:14]:
So let's talk about the types of programs that you've been working on.

Alicia McConnell [00:05:21]:
We started off with Wisconsin DOT, and they wanted a pilot project for bridge inspection utilizing drones.

James Bryant [00:05:29]:
Okay.

Alicia McConnell [00:05:29]:
So we had to go out and buy our first drone. So, you know, it doesn't take very long for you to start off, like, oh, this is a great idea, and then you just dive into the weeds because there's nowhere else to go. So I had to do a bunch of research on the drones that were available at the time. That was 2016. There were very few that were applicable for bridge inspection with drones. For example, if you think about drones that were available back then, most people don't know what was available back then, but everything was a camera that was bottom mounted. Well, if you're under a bridge, you need to look up. So, like, the only drone that we could find was this thing.

Alicia McConnell [00:06:10]:
It was shaped like a v. It was called the Intel Falcon 8, and it had a camera out in front. It flew like a Frisbee. It was unstable in moderate winds Every time you got on a bridge inspection, it was, you know, but that was the best we had at the time, and it was revolutionary at the time because the camera had a 180 degrees range. So we could see under a bridge. We got fantastic results. We did 3 different bridges, and that's what really launched me into understanding applications for bridge inspection. Okay.

Alicia McConnell [00:06:43]:
So from there, we moved I think my next project was conducting some bridge inspections with 2 other Rollins employees at that time, Krista Wieland and John Zuluger. They were a part of the rope access team. They ran the rope access program and I ran the UAS program. We ended up collaborating. They had a project where they had high winds. They were behind schedule and said, could you come out? And it was myself and another gentleman. And we're like, sure, we'll try it. So we went out on-site and ended up conducting the rest of the inspection.

Alicia McConnell [00:07:17]:
They had had high winds, so they were behind schedule. High winds would have derailed us as well, but we were able to accommodate their schedule operating within lane closures. I believe that was in Ohio.

James Bryant [00:07:29]:
Okay.

Alicia McConnell [00:07:30]:
And then we ended up getting selected for a project with Pennsylvania DOT. Identifying commercially available off the shelf drones that could be best utilized for bridge inspection and emergency response. So we ended up pulling together 6 drones in our fleet, going out to Pennsylvania, testing all of them and their ability to inspect different elements on the bridge, and conducting that report for them. From there, we ended up working with Connecticut DOT. We did 2 pilot projects with them, 1 with construction inspection and another one with high mass flight inspections.

James Bryant [00:08:09]:
Okay.

Alicia McConnell [00:08:10]:
And then, you know, from there, it's like as, you know, more and more DOTs, we worked with, some utility companies. We had a lot of different projects with a lot of different DOTs, airports, government agencies, things like that that really broadened our experience and taught us how other people were thinking about the use of drones and then giving us the opportunity to problem solve with them and for them to accomplish their goals with whatever technology suite they may need. Hopefully, it was drones because that was what I was best at at the time, But our engineering brains are problem solvers.

James Bryant [00:08:48]:
Yeah.

Alicia McConnell [00:08:48]:
So how do we apply not just drone technology, but other technology to get you to the end result that you want?

James Bryant [00:08:54]:
That's phenomenal because what you're laying out is that with each step you take, you look to add value. You look to meet the needs of the client. And as you are meeting those needs and you're having positive experiences doing that, it opens up the door to new possibilities. 1, you're learning as you're going through this process, but also these people are talking to each other. These bridge departments are saying, hey. I use Rollist for this or they did this. It was a good project. And so that is a great way to continue to perpetuate this whole concept of adding value.

Alicia McConnell [00:09:30]:
Absolutely. And that's really all I wanna do. I, professionally, my bucket gets filled whenever I provide value and the client thinks, wow. I am so glad that we had them on staff to help us. So

James Bryant [00:09:43]:
How did you come on board with Rollins?

Alicia McConnell [00:09:45]:
Yeah. So I am active in the AASHTO world. They have multiple meetings throughout the year, the annual meeting, the spring meeting. As part of the spring meeting, one of the things I've been doing for over a decade is a STEM program. It's the National Balsa Wood Bridge Building Competition. They do the the 3 different groups, so 7th and 8th, 9th, and 10th, 11th, and 12th. And they create a proposal, build a balsa wood bridge, test it. Some of them have state competitions, and then they bring it to the Ashto spring meeting.

Alicia McConnell [00:10:18]:
So the Ashto spring meeting, I've been a judge on that panel for years years years. I've helped grade proposals, and I absolutely love doing it because I think about where I was at that time as a kid

James Bryant [00:10:29]:
Yeah.

Alicia McConnell [00:10:29]:
Even up through high school, and they are integrating engineering concepts at that age, whereas I was introduced to them in college. So it's it's fantastic. I love seeing them. It's, you know, women and minority focused. So I if there's a a place in my heart to bring the diversity of thought into our world, you know, our our engineering world here. So I was attending the I think it was in 2023 out in Seattle, that ASHHTO meeting and a mutual friend, both Scott and I, introduced us. So I ran into him and and it was just in kind of a social setting, and we ended up chatting about what it is that I did and what it it what it is that he did. And one of the things that I said to him because I had started my own business was how much I hated running my own business.

Alicia McConnell [00:11:24]:
Like, it's you start to go down a rabbit hole of, okay, here's a contract. Now I need legal review. And here and now I have to create an invoice and all those things. One of the things I said to him was, I just wanna do what I love to do. And he was like, you should come work for me. I was like, okay. It took a little bit longer because I had an NCHRP project that I had to finish up, which was, US applications for element level data collection for bridge inspections. I was working through that and I really wanted to focus my efforts on it.

Alicia McConnell [00:11:54]:
So I ended up coming on board in August of 2023. And very shortly after that, we got involved with Tennessee DOT. Rollins had a contract there. I was introduced indirectly to their aeronautics group, their bridge inspection group, the DOTs kind of know each other and all that. I did have a little bit of name recognition internally, which was nice. They recognized that I had done some bridge inspections on some of their infrastructure. So, yeah, it was a really easy transition. And then I was able to start providing value, I think, within 2 weeks of being on staff.

Alicia McConnell [00:12:29]:
And that was very heartwarming to me, and then getting more and more people involved in that program really grew. We were able to help set up Tennessee DOT's UAS program. They already had a great start, but just helping them. They had some new personnel coming in, but getting to help them learn from my mistakes and not reinvent the wheel from what was already out there, but also help their incoming pilots with common pitfalls of going to fly a bridge inspection for the first time. Like, here are some things that most people don't think about, but here's how we can help.

James Bryant [00:13:02]:
How does your experience and background mesh with some of the existing experience that you have throughout Rollins?

Alicia McConnell [00:13:13]:
I would say it is as complimentary as you can get. You know, I would say born and bred consultant, and most of the people at Rollins are through and through DOT public servants, you know, and that was a piece of what I was missing in what I was offering to my DOT clients is, you know, I I can tell them exactly how they need to structure their program to make it work. But within the realm of DOT and the organizational structure that DOTs are required to conform to, I didn't have a deep understanding of that. And the the moment I came to Rollins, I said, alright. Here's what I need to do. You know, here's how a workflow needs to happen for administering a UAS flight internally. And it's like, oh, well, they can't do that. So I got some internal resources saying, here's how they might be able to do that, redistributing some of these responsibilities here.

Alicia McConnell [00:14:12]:
Here's what a proposed org chart could look like. And it was mind blowing to me. Simply because it's like, I thought it was a simple application of responsibilities to 1 or 2 people, and they're like, no. No. No. Here's how we need to structure it. So I have been so thankful that I have such highly regarded internal resources to help me institute the things that I know need to happen for a sustainable UAS or AAM program internal to a DOT. But, that's how we fit together and it is a perfect fit.

James Bryant [00:14:48]:
I love the way that you can talk about how complimentary those services and approaches are that they can work together to benefit and provide value to the client. That is absolutely wonderful. So what does Alicia like to do for fun?

Alicia McConnell [00:15:07]:
I grew up in a family that is incredibly sports oriented. I have 2 older sisters, and all 3 of us got college scholarships for sports. My 2 sisters have kids. 1 has 2 kids. The other one has 3 kids. As you can imagine, family gatherings and all of that are very sports related. They're very competitive and a lot of fun. I live in the same town as my middle sister and her kids are really involved.

Alicia McConnell [00:15:35]:
A lot of what we do is skill building and fitness building. One of the things my husband and I really like to do though is take bike trips. We've gone bike packing before. We love long bike rides. We love to travel. Anytime we have a chance to get overseas and see something new and experience something different, a different culture, a different views, we really like to do that as well.

James Bryant [00:16:00]:
So what's been your favorite spot to go bike camping?

Alicia McConnell [00:16:05]:
We went bike camping out at the Grand Tetons, and that was absolutely beautiful. It was a little colder than I had hoped because we were we had our camping gear with us, and they got a surprise snowstorm, and it got down to 17 degrees, and we were mildly unprepared for that clip. So, yeah, we ended up doing that for, I think it was 6 days, and then we ended up doing another bike trip in Ireland last year, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I've never seen anything like it. You know, you see a lot of great places in the world that look like a postcard, and I have bike through hundreds of postcards.

James Bryant [00:16:47]:
So now when you're out there biking, do you have your drone following you, taking those aerial pictures so that you can save those pictures like you would see on YouTube or something like that?

Alicia McConnell [00:16:58]:
Yeah. So not biking. One of the things we also like to do is off road, like, jeeping, so we'll go jeeping. And there have been a couple of instances where people have had drones out while they're jeeping, and it's like, you know, I can give you a hand with that. So that's been pretty fun. And we also like to fly. Since my husband and I are both pilots, we like to hop in a plane. They call it the $100 hamburger.

Alicia McConnell [00:17:23]:
So let's pick some more fun for lunch today, and you fly there, eat a burger, and head back home.

James Bryant [00:17:29]:
Head back home. Well, that is amazing. Alicia, is there anything else that you would like to share?

Alicia McConnell [00:17:36]:
One of the things that Scott says is we're building the plane as we're flying it. And, Scott and Paul say that, which is funny to me because being in the aerial innovations portion, I don't know how I'll use the word fun that can be, but, you know, it's it's really fun to be part of a group where everybody believes in the many hands make light work. I have had, you know, multiple occasions where I get thrown into something, and I shouldn't say I get thrown into something. I throw myself into something. I say yes, and then I figure out if yes was the right answer or not. Where I've said yes, I think I can do it, but is there anybody that can help me do this better? And I've thrown that out to the group on multiple occasions, and that's sort of how this aerial innovations team, I'll say loosely structured team, has, been created internally to our group. Now everybody helps with everything, but, you know, I had Barbara Davis, for example, just jumped in and said, I love writing. I can help you write letters.

Alicia McConnell [00:18:40]:
And I was like, please do all the writing. I'm an engineer. I don't wanna write.

James Bryant [00:18:45]:
Yeah.

Alicia McConnell [00:18:45]:
So, you know, and there have been so many people that have offered their expertise, and I didn't know I needed it. But by saying these things out loud, the collaborative spirit of the company, where we all share what we're doing, people have the opportunity to contribute. Somebody else can help fill in some of those gaps and make your end product that much better. So it's a delight being part of a part of a family, family slash company that really is invested in everyone's best interest, especially our clients.

James Bryant [00:19:17]:
What an amazing conversation with Alicia today. From that bold first date and a $100 hamburger lunches to pioneering drone inspections across the country, her story really shows how following your passions can lead to incredible places. I love how she's laser focused on creating value for clients, bringing her consulting expertise together with Rollins' deep state DOT experience. It's that perfect blend of innovation and insider knowledge that helps us build programs for our clients from the ground up. Until the next time, this is doctor James Bryant and thank you for listening to The Rolla's Way where every story reminds us that great work starts with great

James Bryant [00:20:04]:
people.