Photo: Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt University
At a recent competition hosted by the regional chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and featuring everything from concrete canoe races to building Styrofoam structures, Vanderbilt civil engineering students earned multiple first place finishes, securing a spot at a national competition in May.
Vanderbilt students competed across multiple events, with the team earning five first-place finishes at the ASCE Region 4 Symposium, held April 9-11 in Cookeville, Tennessee. Including faculty and staff, there were 40 attendees from Vanderbilt, whose team placed first in the Steel Bridge competition, helping students advance to nationals in El Paso, Texas, May 22-24.
“When we built the bridge in 11:44 minutes without any accidents, the team and I were all elated because we knew then that we were going to nationals,” said team captain Grace Deckard, a junior civil engineering major. “None of us thought we were going to get under 12 minutes with no accidents.”
In addition, senior Michael Carroll, won the Daniel W. Mead paper competition, in which students write about professional ethics for civil engineers. This year’s prompt was about recognizing the historical, cultural, and social needs of a community and how civil engineers should incorporate those considerations into their work.
“While working on this paper, I was forced to think more critically about the world around me and how infrastructure impacts my own community,” said Carroll, a senior majoring in engineering science and English. “I believe that this observational mindset will serve me well in future endeavors and is an approach I hope to take with other things in the future.”
Other first-place wins were for the Styrofoam beam competition, frisbee golf, and the scavenger hunt. Vanderbilt took second place in timber-strong and sustainable solutions competitions, and third place in the transportation and environmental competitions.
Tosin Bello, a junior civil engineering student, was captain of the timber-strong team that was required to design and construct a two-story light-frame wood building.
“Reflecting on the experience, I learned the importance of designing for constructability, not just structural performance, as well as the value of detailed planning and clear role definition during construction,” Bello said. “Competitions like timber-strong bridge the gap between theory and practice and require decisions under real constraints such as time, cost, and uncertainty.”
Sophomore civil engineering major Spencer Gribben was a co-captain for the Sustainable Solutions competition which this year required the construction of a new data center.
“We were given a site which had existing buildings, so it was up to us to plan how to replace them with the data center,” Gribben said. “We did calculations and designs for things such as land grading (leveling), stormwater drainage and management, drinking water utilities, and transportation access. This experience was overall very enlightening as to how much goes into every structure around us, and I learned many skills that will be useful throughout my education and career.”
Ghina Absi, assistant professor of the practice of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt, said she’s proud of the students’ performance, and she lauded structures lab manager Rich Teising for the time he spent supporting the students as they built their structures.
Photo: Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt University
“The last two semesters, our ASCE chapter worked tirelessly to compete in a multitude of challenges at the ASCE Region 4 symposium,” Absi said. “Our students showed creativity, resilience, and superior time management skills to balance the teams’ workload and their academic life. I cannot be prouder of their effort and determination. We Anchored Down!”
Also, this year, Vanderbilt students competed in the ASCE Concrete Canoe competition, known as the “America’s Cup of Civil Engineering.” It gives students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience while testing their skills with concrete mix designs and project management challenges.
The first ASCE Concrete Canoe competition was held in 1988, but the history of Concrete Canoe goes back to the 1960s, when a small number of ASCE Student Chapters began holding intramural concrete canoe races.
The ASCE represents more than 160,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, it is the nation’s oldest national civil engineering society.