Success Goes Underground

Some success stories travel across the globe, as did that of Mohamed Hoque. “I came from Bangladesh,” he says, “and I spent one semester in Ohio, mostly doing my ESL courses.”

He next moved to New York, and started classes at BMCC—all the while continuing to build his English proficiency, and support himself with minimum-wage jobs.

“I came as a foreign student,” he says. “At that time, I was not certain how far I could make it, and my confidence, my morale were very low. At BMCC, with its friendly environment and working with a very cooperative faculty and staff, it lifted my spirits up.”

After graduating from BMCC in 1994 with an Associate degree in Engineering Science, Hoque transferred to Polytechnic University, and worked toward his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He also took the civil service test to become a full-time railroad clerk, and began his career at the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

“I worked full time and was in school full time also,” Hoque says. “My parents came here from Bangladesh, almost at the end when I was about to graduate. They came to that graduation.”

Hoque’s next graduation, also at Polytech, was for his Master of Science degree in Transportation Planning and Engineering—and he went from clerk to civil engineer, with the MTA.

From muddy roads to subway tracks

Hoque, who now works to ensure the structural integrity of one of the world’s most extensive public transportation systems—in one of the world’s largest urban centers—started his life walking dirt roads, with his father.

“I come from a village named Katakhali,” he says, “in the southern district of Barisal, in Bangladesh. When I grew up in Katakhali, it was pure rural with no electricity, no paved roads, very few bridges or brick houses. I remember, during the rainy season—which lasted approximately three months—I used to travel on muddy and slippery roads for about three hours with my father to reach the nearest town, Nalchity, where my father would withdraw his teaching salary from a bank.”

While Hoque pursued his engineering career almost five thousand miles away, his village in Bangladesh slowly advanced, as well.

“The majority of the people in the village were, and still are poor,” he says. “However, during the past 20-plus years, the village has witnessed many rapid changes—now there is electricity, and a lot of paved roads, educational institutions, bridges and brick buildings. Transportation and communication have gotten better, and are continuously improving.”

Light at the end of the tunnel

Hoque lives in Brooklyn, where he and his wife of 11 years, Asma Yeasmin, are raising their 8-year-old daughter, Nafisa, and 5-year-old son, Rezwan. Life has changed considerably since his days juggling ESL classes and low-paying jobs.

Today, he’s a Civil Engineer III with the MTA’s Civil and Structural Core Group—work he speaks of with a kind of respectful enthusiasm. “Mostly, we explore subsurface soil and rock conditions,” he says, “to see if it can support the building structures.”

Working day and night through his college years, Hoque was well prepared for the rigorous schedule of maintaining a subway system that is more than a century old and transports five million people a week.

“I am in charge of a group that investigates the soil, rock and underground utilities,” he says, “inspectors and engineers working in all kinds of shifts; day time, night time, weekends—we are there 24/7.”

The problem-solving skills he first honed as an engineering undergraduate at BMCC are important in his current position.

“Let’s say we need to build a big fan plant to supply air into the subway tunnels,” Hoque says.

“For that, we may have to investigate the soil condition as deep as 200 feet below the ground surface, to see what kind of soil is there and if it can support the underground structure or equipment. It almost doesn’t matter how good or how bad the soil condition is, there are always ways you can treat it—and the goal is always challenging.”

In a structural environment as complex as New York City, other situations, such as building vaults that extend beneath sidewalks, or aging tunnels constantly arise. Sometimes, they even happen above ground.

“One example is the Franklin Avenue shuttle,” Hoque says, explaining that while the MTA uses the best materials available at any given time, such as types of artificial, lightweight concrete, there can be problems down the road, to fix.

“The track settled,” he says, “so we’ve done some soil testing and are in the process of coming up with solutions.”

Success: Passing it along

Hoque’s office is in Lower Manhattan, and he would be mistaken for any other Wall Street executive if it weren’t for the fluorescent-orange vest and hard hat he dons, on the way out the door to visit subway worksites in all five boroughs.

“I go down into the tunnels in full, almost like military uniform attire,” he says. “Very heavy-duty shoes that can resist the volts on the tracks, and then, depending on the weather conditions, there are other requirements. A hard hat is always a must; vest, flashlight, and equipment.”

For the last eight years, Hoque has taken off his hard hat to also assume the role of adjunct professor at BMCC, teaching General Physics, a subject that “enlightens students about the things around us: the light, the magnets, the various machinery and equipment, the loads, the forces, the speed, the velocity—even the pitch and sound.”

Hoque’s two brothers and three sisters are still in Bangladesh, working as educators, administrators, and attending college. His youngest brother, who moved to New York in 2002, is a math major now at BMCC, and like many of the students in Hoque’s physics class, is perfecting his English while focusing on his studies.

Hoque understands what it’s like for his students, building a life in a new and sometimes perplexing place.

“It’s my goal to make sure they are just as comfortable as I was, when I started at BMCC,” he says. “I don’t just teach them, I like to see them grow, and fully realize their potential. I am there for them at every level, whether it’s the job level—they need a reference—or any kind of assistance I can provide.”