Missouri KC, N. Arizona, Lehigh teams top PCI Big Beam Competition

Sources: Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago; CP staff University of Missouri Kansas City, Team 2 took the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute 2021 Engineering Student Design Competition, also known as the Big Beam Competition. Students Jose Luis Ramirez and Juan Carlos Plasencia Chinchay prevailed with guidance from Civil Engineering Professor Thiagarajan Ganesh and Terry Fleck of Coreslab Structures (Kansas).

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Coalition steers students to Habitat-grade, concrete home design

Sources: Build With Strength Coalition, Alexandria, Va.; CP staff Build With Strength is lining up with Habitat for Humanity International and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture behind the Habitat Design Competition: Climate Positive Concrete Housing. Through April 2022, the program will challenge individuals or student teams to explore a variety of issues related to the use of concrete…

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Strescore-assisted Notre Dame teams top PCI Big Beam Competition

Sources: Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago; CP staff Two University of Notre Dame student teams took first and second place in the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute 2020 Engineering Student Design Competition. Now in its 20th year and also known as Big Beam, the national competition educates college students in an applied learning environment—imparting structural engineering skills they can use throughout their careers…

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Cemex Ventures, Hilti open Construction Startup Competition

Sources: Hilti North America, Plano, Texas; CP staff

“You are the missing piece” is the theme of a worldwide competition for new entities or business plan proposals addressing five areas of construction value chain opportunity: Smart and sustainable cities and buildings; digital solutions for project and jobsite management; supply chain management; innovative materials or methods; and, optimization of productivity, efficiency and quality in daily project management.

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BuRec competition targets water pipeline performance improvement

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; CP staff

With a purse up to $75,000 divided among five finalists, the Bureau of Reclamation has launched a two-stage competition seeking innovative methods to detect leaks and flaws in buried pipelines—primarily 48-in. and larger prestressed concrete cylinder or steel pipe—that convey water for municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses.

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Construction coalition appeals to Trump’s sense of competition and wage fairness

A late-January Associated Builders & Contractors study indicated how construction unemployment rates through the end of last year sustained a downward trend dating to 2010. “The ongoing year-over-year decline in the national unemployment rate is an indication of the health of the construction job market and its recovery from the deep recession,” explained economist Bernard Markstein, Ph.D., who analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2016 data for ABC. “However, the shortage of skilled construction workers is hindering the ability of the sector to grow, with more than 80 percent of Associated Builders and Contractors members reporting a shortage of appropriately skilled labor.”

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Notre Dame team takes second consecutive PCI Big Beam competition

Sources: Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago; CP staff

The PCI Student Education Committee has named the 20 top performers in its Engineering Student Design Competition—better known as the Big Beam Contest—where teams fabricate and test precast/prestressed specimens with the help of local PCI producer members. Points are earned for efficient design, load capacity and other criteria.

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