May « 2014 « School of Civil and Construction Engineering

The Oregon State University steel bridge team had an outstanding showing at the national competition as the team finished in ninth-place out of 49 teams at the event held on May 23-24, 2014, in Akron, Ohio. The OSU team consisted of Chelsea Farnsworth, Peter Mercer, Jessee Bogenoff, Chris Derbyshire and captains, Barry Maslen and Austin Williams and qualified for the national event by winning the regional competition at Portland State University.

The contest involved design, fabrication/welding, and timed construction of an approximately 20-foot span bridge evaluated on lightness, construction speed, and stiffness in supporting 2500 lbs of load. The OSU team improved its scores in a number of categories over their performance in regionals at PSU.

“I am tremendously proud of this year’s team as they excelled in all aspects of the project,” said OSU associate professor and ASCE student chapter faculty advisor Tom Miller. “Their success was truly a team effort. The support this year from the School of Civil and Construction Engineering, College of Engineering, OSU Student Foundation, OSU Department of Physics, ASCE Oregon Section, ASCE Capital Branch and a number of generous individual donors was wonderful and made the win at regionals, great performance at nationals and preparation for future successes possible.”

The competition, which saw 208 teams compete at the regional level, was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Steel Construction.

The Oregon State University College of Engineering will host the 2014 OSU Engineering Expo on Friday, May 16, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Kelley Engineering Center. This year’s Senior Design Showcase features nearly 200 student-built projects from across the college’s six schools.

The Expo is a great learning opportunity for high school students who are interested in science and technology or may be considering a career in engineering.

In addition, the expo demonstrates the College of Engineering’s full support of the statewide initiative led by the Engineering and Technology Industry Council (ETIC) to address the issue of “T-shaped” professionals, a term referring to individuals who have depth of technical knowledge paired with skills, such as communication and teamwork, that cross over individual disciplines.

Projects from the OSU School of Civil and Construction Engineering to be featured at the expo include:

Sandy River Bridge – Students are designing a 200-foot boardwalk and bridge/overlook structure to replace a boardwalk that was destroyed in the floods of 2012. Sponsored by the City of Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department, the project will incorporate recycled materials from the previous boardwalk. The students design documents will be used to secure grant funding to construct the project.

EWB Belize Water System Design – Students are designing an irrigation system to transport water for agricultural use to the Valley of Peace in Belize. The irrigation system will include pumping, storage, and irrigation components using locally available materials. This project is sponsored by the OSU chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

ODOT US-97 MP190 Wildlife Crossing Proposal – Students are designing a structure to facilitate safe crossing of wildlife across US-97. The project will result in not only reduced wildlife fatalities, but reduced automobile crashes, injuries and deaths. This project is sponsored by the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The expo, in its 15th year, is free and open to the public and will also feature lab tours and a Robo*Palooza, which includes the TekBot® Triathlon, an award-winning Mars rover, and FIRST robots from local high schools.

For more information about the expo, or to reserve a lab tour for over 20 guests, call 541-737-3101.

The O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory hosted a hands-on design challenge for approximately 1000 Oregonian students this past week in the Tsunami Structure Challenge (TSC). The activity, led by education and outreach coordinator A licia Lyman-Holt, was comprised of a presentation which set-up the “design” challenge, a design and build phase where groups of four students built structures out of available materials and concluded with a test phase where structures were subjected to tsunami conditions at the wave laboratory.

Following the testing phase, Lyman-Holt gave students a tour of the research facility, introducing students to lab equipment as well as teaching them about the importance of ongoing tsunami and wave research.

The TSC was designed around the engineering goals in the STEM standards for Oregon at the 8^th-grade level, which encompassed the largest number of participants in the challenge.

For more information about the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, or to schedule a tour, contact Alicia Lyman-Holt.

Arturo Leon, Ph.D., P.E, Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University, has been named a Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer (D.WRE) of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE), a subsidiary of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The D.WRE certification is the highest post-license certification available in the water resources engineering profession and it is an accredited program by the Council of Engineering & Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB). The D.WRE represents strong professional ethics, a commitment to life-long learning and continuing professional development. Arturo will be inducted as Diplomate on June 2, 2014 at the 2014 ASCE-EWRI World Water & Environmental Resources Congress.

Last week, the OSU ASCE steel bridge team captured the team title at the 2014 ASCE Pacific Northwest Student Conference. With the victory in the steel bridge competition, OSU will advance to the ASCE national competition, held from May 23-23 in Akron, Ohio. The performance marked the first time in over 10 years the group has advanced to nationals. With a goal of raising $5500 for the trip to nationals, supporters can contribute to the trip by visiting the group’s fundraising website.

The victory in the steel bridge competition capped a solid weekend for OSU ASCE as the group placed second in the environmental competition and concrete bowling ball competition while the concrete canoe team placed third.

Portland State University hosted the 2014 student conference from April 25-27 as it featured over 350 students from universities in Alaska, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana.

A complete rundown of OSU results is below.

2014 ASCE Pacific Northwest Student Conference – OSU Results

Steel Bridge:

1st – Aesthetics

1st – Construction Speed

3rd – Lightness

1st – Overall

Concrete Canoe:

1st – Women’s Endurance

3rd- Men’s Endurance

2nd – Women’s Sprint

6th – Men’s Sprint

1st – Coed Sprint

3rd – Overall

Environmental Competition:

2nd – Overall

Concrete Bowling Ball Competition:

2nd – Overall

An additional congratulations for excellent work to:

Kristina Milaj in the Technical Paper and Presentation Competition.

The four ASCE members who participated in the Surveying Competition.

School of Civil and Construction Engineering – Blog

Dedicated to advancing knowledge in the built environment.

Monthly Archives: May 2014

OSU Steel Bridge Team places ninth at nationals

College of Engineering set to host 2014 OSU Engineering Expo

Wave Laboratory hosts students in Tsunami Structure Challenge

Professor Arturo Leon receives honor from AAWRE

Support the OSU Steel Bridge Team at nationals

Contact Info