Civil Engineering Students Host Pacific Southwest Conference
April 25, 2017 - More than 1,300 civil and environmental engineering students from 18 schools descended on the UC Irvine campus April 6-8 for the American Society of Civil Engineers Pacific Southwest Conference. Hosted by UCI’s ASCE student chapter, the annual event featured three days of competition, including steel bridge, construction, concrete canoe, water filtration system design (environmental) and more. There was also a career fair, recreational activities and an awards banquet.
Schools attending included four UCs, four Cal States, both Cal Poly schools, three Arizona universities, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, California Baptist, Loyola Marymount, USC and traveling the furthest, University of Hawaii, Manoa. The first day featured construction and environmental competitions and a display of concrete canoes and steel bridges in Aldrich Park. Day 2 included canoe races and beach games at Newport Dunes, and the last day featured the steel bridge competition back at UCI and an awards banquet at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel.
UCI teams placed second in the environmental competition with their design of a water filtration system, fourth in the men’s concrete canoe sprint race and second in the scavenger hunt. All results can be found on the PSWC website.
All the teams seemed to enjoy their day at Newport Dunes; many ran along the shore cheering on their canoe crews. The concrete canoe is a team project dedicated to constructing a canoe that will showcase how functional and reliable concrete is as a material. UCI’s vessel was named Atromitos, which is Greek for fearless. The team intentionally made this year’s craft thinner than last year’s model so it would be lighter and easier to maneuver, and they placed a steel bar down the center of the canoe’s base to serve as reinforcement and prevent cracking. The strong wind over the bay on race day proved challenging for the rowers, though.
“We kept having to correct and it was hard to turn,” said rower Julia Milano, a senior civil engineering student.
Keven Nguyen, another rower and the concrete and construction captain, explained: “We took in too much water, which slowed us down. Our mix was strong but we must have holes that we can’t see.”
A junior civil engineering student, Nguyen was on the team last year too. He said being part of concrete canoe was “definitely an experience. We learned how to manage our time, bond with the other captains and conduct independent research.” UCI came in fourth in the men’s sprint race.
Successfully hosting such a large conference was an achievement in itself for the UCI student chapter. Many of the UCI students gave of their time and forfeited participation in competition projects in order to help run the conference.
Cristen Alvarez, a senior environmental engineering major, served as conference president. She said they switched out some events and made others more challenging. They also made an effort to increase awareness of sustainable practices by printing fewer programs, using recycled paper and setting up zero-waste stations around campus. “We wanted to touch on the full spectrum of civil engineering and make sure that the students had a chance to really engage in all of its aspects.
“Overall, we are extremely proud of our UCI team for accomplishing what we did under such stressful circumstances, and we thank them for the sacrifices they made,” said Alvarez. “We're hoping to perform better next year in Arizona where the next conference will be hosted.”
– Lori Brandt
