Under the direction of faculty advisor Daniel Kuchma, three engineering students from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana captured this year’s
Under the direction of faculty advisor Daniel Kuchma, three engineering students from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana captured this year’s Big Beam Engineering Design Competition, organized by the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). The University of Illinois team, assisted by Blackstone, Ill.-based Prestress Engineering Corp., won the 2006 award, besting challengers from six other PCI Zones. Prizes including $2,000 for the team’s effort were presented to Illinois students Kerry Hall, Jason Hart and Sukit Yindeesuk at the annual PCI Convention and Expo/National Bridge Conference, Oct. 22-25, in Grapevine, Texas.
Sponsored by Lyndhurst, N.J.-based Sika Corp., the Big Beam Contest is conducted under the auspices of the Institute’s Student Education Committee, chaired by Pat Hynes of Morse Bros. Inc. Prestress Concrete Group, Harrisburg, Ore. Students are required to fabricate and test a precast/ prestressed concrete beam with the help of local PCI-certified plants. Prizes are awarded for most efficient design, highest load capacity, best report, and other criteria.
Also recognized were the following teams:
2nd place Û University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Faculty Advisor: Maher Tadros. Student Team: Saeed Javidi, Thomas Lutomirksi, Scott Peterson, Scott Rosenbaugh, Nick Staroski, Ling Zhu, and M.A. Stanigzai. Assisted by Concrete Industries Inc., Lincoln.
3rd place Û Oregon State University, Corvallis. Faculty Advisor: Keith Kaufman. Student Team: Shane Brown, Nick Hernandez, Quang Nguyen and Rob Ranit. Assisted by Morse Prestress Group.
4th place Û University of Texas, Austin. Faculty Advisor: Ozzie Bayrak. Student Team: Raquel DeBlauw, Greg Glass, Matt Huizinga, Matt O’Callaghan, Greg Rogers, Kyle Riding, Jim Sutton, and Kate Tomlinson. The team was assisted by Coreslab Structures Inc., Cedar Park, Texas.
5th place Û University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Faculty Advisor: Maged Youssef. Student Team: Tom Greenough, Daniel Barber, Shari Robitaille, M.S. Alam, Dana Testler, Brian Nourse, Peter Preston, and Calum Macdonald. Assisted by Prestressed Systems Inc., Windsor.
6th place Û Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va. Faculty Advisors: Tommy Cousins and Carin Roberts-Wollmann. Student Team: Eric Crispino, James Ordija and Jonathon Bagwell. Assisted by Tindall Corp., Petersburg, Va.
Additionally, awards for outstanding reports were given to teams from the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.; University of Missouri, Rolla; and, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg.