On March 16-18, the UT ASCE Student Chapter traveled to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton to compete in the ASCE SE Student Conference. In a three-day competition with more than 1,000 students from 25 universities across the Southeast, UT placed 4th overall. This conference was the largest of 14 national ASCE student conferences.
“I could not be more proud of our chapter and all of their accomplishments this year,” said ASCE Student Chapter President Katie Gipson. “We had a great time in Boca Raton and represented the University very well!”
UT placed in the top three in the following individual competitions:
1 st Place
- Steel Bridge Display
- Professional Paper
3rd Place
- Plan Reading
Co-Captains of the Concrete Canoe project, Morgan Jenkins and Sydney Reeder, were excited to finally reach the racing day after months of designing and building, while considering materials and structural calculations.
“Concrete canoe was an exciting, challenging experience that allowed for a unique application of skills from classroom and professional engineering practices,” said Reeder. “I found it to be a valuable experience because it allowed me to gain experience in properly managing a project while working alongside my peers to produce a successful project.”
The Steel Bridge project co-captains, Matt Lyons and Will King, were proud of their team’s 4th place overall finish and 1st place award in the display category. After months of teamwork to fabricate a 20-foot bridge that could support a 2,500-pound load.
“Our design was built to optimize the construction speed and stiffness portions,” said King.” We are very proud of our performance and cannot wait to show out again next year!”
“Although it was a nerve-wracking couple hours of constructing and then load testing, it made it all worth it when we saw the results and how well we placed,” said Lyons.” I am extremely proud of my team and hope we can compete once more at nationals.”
“The ASCE Knoxville Branch and Department of CEE are very supportive of our ASCE student chapter, which enables us to be competitive every year in the largest national conference,” said Faculty Advisor Professor John Ma. “This year’s conference was held during our spring-break week, which limited the number of our students to participate. With Katie and Lauren’s leadership, UT still placed 4th overall. I am very proud of their accomplishments.”
UT’s results in other categories are as follows. For a full listing of awards received by all schools, click here.
1st Place
- Professional Paper — Stina Sanford
- Steel Bridge Display — Matthew Lyons, Will King, Salvador Morales, Scott Wilson, Meet Patel, Nicolo Franceschetti
3rd Place
- Plan Reading — Lauren Barnette, Scott Henderson, Kelli Grissom
4th Place
- Environmental — Kelli Grissom, Sharon Counts
- T-Shirt — Liliana Porras
- Balsa Bridge Competition — Ethan Riddle, Jose Luna, Anthony Carvagno
5th Place
- Steel Bridge Overall — Matthew Lyons, Will King, Salvador Morales, Scott Wilson, Meet Patel, Nicolo Franceschetti
- Conference Theme Display — Leah Stephens, Jaideep Thota
8th Place
- Ladder Golf — Sharon Counts, Kelli Grissom, Sydney Adcock, Mac Carson
9th Place
- Survey — Max Carter, Scott Wilson, Salvador Morales
10th Place
- Traffic Engineering — Sharon Counts, Katie Gipson, Liliana Porras
- Concrete Cornhole — Sharon Counts, Kelli Grissom, Sydney Adcock
11th Place
- Wood Dam — Stina Sanford
- Mystery — Anthony Carvagno
12th Place
- Concrete Frisbee — Sharon Counts, Kelli Grissom, Sydney Adcock, Matthew Lyons, Sydney Reeder
- Overall Canoe — Morgan Jenkins, Will King, Sydney Reeder, Matt Davis, Lauren Barnette, Katie Gipson, Kelli Grissom, Liliana Porras, Scott Henderson, Matthew Lyons, Will King, Justin Condon
15th Place
Geotechnical Engineering — Scott Henderson, Noah Clabo