MEMBER PROFILE George Piscsalko: A Quiet Curiosity George Piscsalko is a lucky man. He has worked for the same firm for 29 years, Pile Dynamics, Inc., and still loves to go to work each day. His DFI colleagues describe him as possessing “honesty, integrity and technical capabilities.” Chris Schewmaker, Illini Drilled Foundations, singles out Piscsalko’s willingness during DFI Technical Committee meetings to “put aside commercial interests and focus on overall industry needs,” adding that “this speaks volumes to his character.” Piscsalko, who has served on the DFI Augured Cast-in-Place (ACIP) Pile Committee for 10 years, won the 2013 William C. Bermingham Innovation Award, with Professor Gray Mullins of the University of Southern Florida, for Pile Dynamic’s Thermal Integrity Profiler (TIP). Mullins puts Piscsalko “at the top of his list,” saying that civil engineering is lucky to have him, that with his electronic talents, he could have gone anywhere. He has a light burning; you know he is always processing everything going on. Mullins also cites Piscsalko’s “quiet glow, a curiosity and excitement that never goes away. He is willing to entertain any idea I throw out, no matter how crazy.” Praise for Piscsalko comes from yet another source, Silas Nichols, of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). He thinks Piscsalko has a “great aptitude for understanding and addressing the technical needs of the public and the private sector.” Piscsalko was born and raised in the Cleveland area, and his second job was with Pile Dynamics. His short-lived former job was with a firm with 1,500 employees, and he left for one with 15 people (PDI now has about 20 engineers on staff). He says he was always curious, liked solving problems and likes to “make things better.” PDI and GRL are sister companies founded by Garland Likins, Frank Rausche and George Goble. As PDI began to expand, they hired Piscsalko in 1984. As he puts it, he was in the “right place at the right time” — the timing was, in fact, “fantastic.” Piscsalko says Rausche and Likins are “great people,” he learns something every day, and that he is a “small part” of the process. He has looked forward to coming to work every day for all 29 years. In a smaller firm, he says, you get to see and experience the whole picture, all the mechanical, electrical and other elements of products in the field, as opposed to being just a “piece” of the picture. “You learn more,” he says, the best part of his job is when you rise to a challenge, add fea- tures, refine. His mantra at PDI appears to be “never be satisfied.” Describing his work, he says the firm sets milestones, via feedback from customers and also respon- ding to the constant evolution of hardware and software. There are also surprises. For example “when a company cancels a component, you’ve put in a product, you either cancel, stop selling the item, or re-design.” Thermal Integrity Profiler Mullins and Piscsalko’s collaboration illustrates the evolution of technical advances. The two started talking about four years ago, when Mullins was doing research with infrared probes used to measure the elevated heat of hydration temperatures via access tubes cast into shafts. The two conferred and agreed to work together — putting solid state In a smaller firm, he says, you get to see and experience the whole picture, all the mechanical, electrical and other elements of products in the field, as opposed to being just a “piece” of the picture. developing a Thermal Wire cable which can be cast directly into the pile. The great advantage, he says, is that you don’t need to send the engineer to the site — you take travel and time out of the testing process. Mullins and Piscsalko are currently working on applications for the TIP, for example, on ACIP piles. George Piscsalko offers his view of ACIP piles. “They are a nice alternative due to the speed at which they can be installed, the low vibrations associated with these pile types (can be installed adjacent to existing structures), and the flexibility to install in situations such as low headroom.” He thinks there is some hesitancy from some designers to use ACIP piles because of the unknown completed pile shape. The ability of NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) products, and TIP speci- fically, to verify the struc- tural integrity of ACIP piles, will help to grow the mar- ket share for this pile type, he thinks. At PDI , Piscsalko works with the firm’s R&D Board, helping prioritize and set milestones, and see that the work is done on t ime. Engineer s are curious, he says, and PDI instruments into Mullin’s probe and ® DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JAN/FEB 2014 • 47
