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CEE Senior Design Students Win $10,000 in Aesthetic Design Competition

Five Senior Design students.Five Senior Design students who graduated in May 2018 were recently recognized for their aesthetic design of a timber transmission tower in a competition hosted by Aesthetic Competition Series (ACS). Morgan Jenkins, Williams Kin, Matthew Livesay, Liliana Porras, and Trenton Wiles teamed up to engineer a design that meets an aesthetically pleasing built environment, and their design was selected over submissions by industry professionals.

The team, advised by Senior Lecturer Jenny Retherford, entered the ACS  in June and were honored at the ASCE Electrical Transmission & Substation Conference in early November during the plenary session. The prize came with $10,000, and the students are donating $1,000 to the upcoming SE-ASCE Conference that UT is hosting.

To accomplish their objectives, the team partnered with Assistant Professor Adam Taylor from UT Forestry as well as Jeff Lloyd from Nisus Corp. Additionally, they received project insight from TVA engineers from Chattanooga.Jennifer Retherford accepts a large check for $10,000.

The team of students competed with 10 other entrants, many from the power industry, or professionals in fabrication, architecture, and engineering. In fact, they were the only student team to participate.

“It was a rewarding experience, completing our senior design project and my degree while also getting a ‘W’ against fellow students and professionals alike,” said Matt Livesay, who served as the team’s connection design lead.

“The team worked hard through a very stressful senior design semester,” said Retherford. “The team was able to integrate design concepts that required them to step outside of the civil engineer’s comfort zone. In meeting with various faculty across the entire university, the team’s initiative to not just engineer, but design, was truly impressive.”