{"id":49036,"date":"2023-03-28T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T11:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=49036"},"modified":"2023-04-02T12:47:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T16:47:02","slug":"staying-civil-engineering-students-at-15-universities-ready-themselves-for-upcoming-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/staying-civil-engineering-students-at-15-universities-ready-themselves-for-upcoming-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying civil: Engineering students at 15 universities ready themselves for upcoming competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UTC

UTC civil engineering students work on a concrete canoe in preparation for competition in the American Society of Civil Engineers Mid-South Student Symposium. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

For students competing in the American Society of Civil Engineers Mid-South Student Symposium, success \u201camounts to very narrow moments,\u201d said Chris Frishcosy.<\/p>\n

He knows from personal experience.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Frishcosy\u2014now director of labs for the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga\u2014was a member of the University of South Carolina student team in the symposium\u2019s Steel Bridge Building contest.<\/p>\n

His team had spent most of an academic year designing a 24-foot long, 3.8-foot wide and 5-foot tall bridge to span a \u201criver\u201d whose banks were marked by tape on the floor. When the actual building took place during the competition, they would lose if its measurements were an inch outside regulations.<\/p>\n

They lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can attest to the heartbreak,\u201d said Frishcosy.<\/p>\n

Frishcosy and Karen Lomen, administrative assistant in the Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering, are co-leaders and organizers of the symposium\u2014which UTC is hosting for the first time since 2015. Set for March 30-April 1, its highlights include the Steel Bridge and the Concrete Canoe competitions.<\/p>\n

Teams may spend most of an academic year preparing for the competitions, testing different types and mixtures of concrete and buoyancy factors, writing equations to verify the bridge\u2019s strength and difficulty of construction, and finding local companies to provide the materials needed for either one.<\/p>\n

Even if students don\u2019t win, they still come away with lessons learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize you knew more than you thought you knew. It solidifies what they\u2019ve learned and makes it real: \u2018I can actually be a civil engineer,\u2019\u201d Lomen said.<\/p>\n

The symposium also \u201cis a good way to show off our campus\u201d to students and faculty at other schools, Frishcosy said. He said that a scavenger hunt is planned during the symposium with items hidden across UTC.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can go out and see the campus. We\u2019re making sure that\u2019s a focus of students visiting here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The conference also fosters connections among students and networking with industry professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur students have made connections. I\u2019ve made connections. Karen has made connections within the city for donations, volunteer services and event spaces,\u201d Frishcosy said.<\/p>\n

ASCE Mid-South Student Symposium sponsors include TVA, AISC, Croy Engineering, Geosyntec, Barge Design Solutions, Barnett Jones Wilson, LLC, March Adams & Associates, Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc, Neel-Schaffer Engineering, NOVONIX, Brooks and Associates, Terracon Consultants, Inc. and Pure Graphite.<\/p>\n

Teams competing in the Mid-South Student Symposium:<\/p>\n