The University of Tennessee student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers placed 10th in both the surveying competition and the sustainable solutions competition at the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships, which was held June 20-22 on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
The UT contingent that traveled to the event consisted of 13 students and faculty advisor Jenny Retherford.
Getting to the Championships
The Engineering Vols earned their spot at nationals by winning the regional title at the TN-AK Student Symposium Region, emerging victorious in surveying and sustainable solutions competitions.
A total of 58 teams from 49 schools participated in the three events held at the conference (surveying, sustainable solutions, concrete canoe). UT was one of just seven schools with two teams. Only one school had teams competing in all three events.
During the national ASCE-UESI Surveying Competition, students were required to use standard field and office equipment and procedures to solve common problems encountered in industry, according to the conference guidelines.
Experience at the Championships
The national ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition challenged students to develop a stronger understanding of sustainability and learn to incorporate sustainable solutions into everyday problems that engineers may encounter. Per the guidelines, students were encouraged to be creative in their solutions and use all resources available. At this year’s competition, a fictional city sought proposals to revitalize the waterfront area using the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision framework to meet sustainability goals.
“This year, the team went above and beyond,” Retherford said. “They are required in the competition to use SketchUp to create a vision for community upgrade. Our team took that one step further and created a visualization so people could put on VR goggles and see their community design in 3D.”
In placing 10th in the surveying competition, UT tied for first in leveling and building stakeout, and finished sixth for field tasks. Purdue University Northwest won the overall title, Clemson University finished second, and Penn State was third.
“All of this means the competition is extremely close. The difference between the first-place team and our finish in 10th place is a matter of feet,” Retherford said. “We are right in the mix with other schools performing at this national level.”
The Engineering Vols hope to improve their standing at next summer’s nationals, which will be hosted by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The goal is to have three UT teams competing, with concrete canoe joining surveying and sustainable solutions. The concrete canoe captains joined the UT group in Provo to observe and learn.
“We feel very confident about continuing our success in getting to nationals,” Retherford said. “We work hard to win in our region. We consider ourselves competitive, but with some room to achieve to become national champions. We have the right work ethic and we’re building experience.”
UT’s TEAM
- Julia Craven, Sustainable Solutions
- Griffin Barley, Sustainable Solutions
- Alex Langen, Sustainable Solutions
- Evan Pindrock, Sustainable Solutions
- Kathryn Stehle, Sustainable Solutions
- Isabelle Hamby, Sustainable Solutions
- James Mai, Surveying
- Claire Kimbell, Surveying
- Joey Noce, Surveying
- Ryan Scalzo, Surveying
- Braxton Allen, Surveying
- Laken Jones, Concrete Canoe
- Robert Huber, Concrete Canoe
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, rpotkey@utk.edu)