The annual American Society of Civil Engineers’ Pacific Southwest Symposium saw students from 14 universities show off their skills by building steel bridges and concrete canoes.
Structural and civil engineering students from 14 universities showcased their existing and newly developed skills at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Pacific Southwest Symposium, which took place from March 31-April 2, 2022. The event included technical competitions, such as crafting technical papers, designing a geo-wall, environmental design and transportation design. It also involved hands-on building competitions, including timber-strong design build, and building concrete canoes and steel bridges.
Hosted by the University of California San Diego, this year’s event was especially important for participants.
“This year is special because it’s the first in-person conference in two years,” says Raymond Chu, a UC San Diego structural engineering student and symposium planning chair to the UC San Diego News Center. “The goal is to create a welcoming and uplifting environment for our community of civil and structural engineers to come out and meet each other, participate in technical competitions where we demonstrate all we’ve learned in classes and meet and socialize with students from across the region.”
The regional conference welcomed students from ASCE chapters as far as Hawaii and as near as Southern California. More than 800 attendees participated in the three-day event, which took significant planning for every team involved.
“I would see the students working daily, in the afternoons and late into the evenings, and the students also rehearsed their presentations in a formal setting before the symposium,” Oceana Francis, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College associate professor and ASCE student chapter faculty advisor, said to UH News. “Events like these help the students learn creative skills, networking, teamwork and building friendships that last a lifetime.”
The UC San Diego team won the steel bridge competition. Teams were required to build a 21-foot steel bridge that was strong, light and stiff, in the least time possible while adhering to strict design standards. Prior to the competition, teams worked to create their designs, perform analytics and tests and fabricate bridge components in order to be ready for assembling their bridges on-site. The winning bridge weighed 138 pounds and was completed in 10 minutes and 40 seconds. Impressive, considering the new skills everyone on the team had to learn.
“Six months ago, no one knew how to weld. We were still looking for a space to fabricate, and no one on the team had ever built a bridge before,” said Saul Chaplin, UC San Diego structural engineering student and steel bridge co-project manager. “Through brutal and brutally fun 40-hour weeks of bridging as well as incredible mentorship, we have now trained 15 welders… We have developed hands-on engineering and metalworking skills that will last our lifetimes.”
The concrete canoe competition tends to be a highlight of the symposium, and one of the biggest projects. This competition involves the construction of a reinforced, 20-foot canoe. It must be made of concrete and fit four people. Along with being graded on the prototype design there are racing competitions, which required paddling training. But the true challenge for most teams was keeping their concrete canoes afloat.
Those challenges further highlighted how important these types of events are beyond the engineering side.
“Our canoe actually did crack in half but being able to keep persevering and learn from that was what it’s all about,” said Huyson Tran, UC San Diego structural engineering student and project manager for this year’s Concrete Canoe team. “We were lucky enough to have one of our canoes from past years to race and have fun, cheering on all the teams, and our teammates’ paddling. It’s invigorating.”
Interested in other interactive events helping to spark interest in STEM? Check out Engineering Students Will Race Across Country in the American Solar Challenge 2022.
