The Student Education Judging Committee recently selected the winners of the Engineering Student Design Competition, also known as the Big Beam Contest. The Student Education Committee of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Industry (Dr. Sergio Breña, Chair) organizes the Big Beam Contest, sponsored by Sika Corp., and assigned the judging committee (Dr. Richard Miller, Chair). The objective is for teams of students to fabricate and test a precast/prestressed concrete beam with the help of local precast concrete PCI Producer Members. Prizes are awarded to the top twenty performers in consideration of efficient design, highest load capacity, and other categories
“The entries this year were of extremely high quality,” said PCI Managing Director, Education, Alex Morales. “The designs were based on sound engineering judgement but the real value is how students learn the importance of the designer-manufacturer relationship in making those designs come to life. Congratulations to the University of Notre Dame team for winning first place overall and to all of the students that participated.”
New judging criteria for 2015 eliminated zonal competitions and all entries competed in one North American competition. Entries were ranked by total number of points earned per the contest rules and the first place team was from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
Overall Results
First place: University of Notre Dame; Notre Dame, Indiana (Zone 4)
Faculty advisor: Yahya Kurama, PhD, PE
PCI producer: StresCore Inc.; South Bend, Indiana (Jason Reihl)
Student team: Robert Devine, Michael Brandes, David Terry, Jessica Orlando, Nicholas Bette, Ted Williams, Craig Davila, Megan McKeon,
Points: 64.50
Award: $2000, plus other prizes
Second place: Oregon State University; Corvallis, Oregon (Zone 1)
Faculty advisor: Keith Kaufmann, PhD, PE
PCI producer: Knife River Corporation – Northwest; Harrisburg, Oregon (Keith Kaufmann, PhD, PE)
Student team: Karryn Johnsohn, Jason Anderson, Curtis Blank
Points: 59.25
Award: $1750
Third place: The University of Kansas [Orange Team]; Lawrence, Kansas (Zone 3)
Faculty advisor: Robert Lyon, PhD
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures, Inc; Kansas City, Kansas (Terry Fleck)
Student team: Allie Wagner, Cheng Chen, Jie Wu, Andrew Hasse, Ali Abdul Baki, Madan Neupane
Points: 53.75
Award: $1500
Fourth place: University of Washington [Team 2]; Seattle, Washington (Zone 1)
Faculty advisor: John Stanton, PhD
PCI producer: Concrete Technology Corporation; Tacoma, Washington (Austin Maue)
Student team: Lardo Wang, Wai Lok Chung, Suki Ngan, Yousef Alshaba, Givens Lam
Points: 52.00
Award: $1250
Fifth place: The University of Kansas [Blue Team]; Lawrence, Kansas (Zone 3)
Faculty advisor: Robert Lyon, PhD
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures, Inc; Kansas City, Kansas (Terry Fleck)
Student team: Michael Whitten, Kevin Garrett, Mohammad Bazzaz, Michael Sang, Mona Khosh, Parisa Asadollahi
Points: 51.25
Award: $1000
Sixth place: Missouri University of Science & Technology; Rolla, Missouri (Zone 3)
Faculty advisor: John Myers, PhD
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (Missouri), Inc; Marshall, Missouri (John Brodersen)
Student team: Eli Hernandez, Kaylea Smith, Hayder Alghazali
Points: 50.00
Award: $1000
Seventh place: University of Missouri, Kansas City; Kansas City, Missouri (Zone 3)
Faculty advisor: Ganesh Thiagarajan, PhD
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures, Inc; Kansas City, Kansas (Terry Fleck)
Student team: Kristen Reynolds, Phanindra Kumar Kosaraju
Points: 48.50
Award: $1000
Eighth place: Western University; London, Ontario, Canada (Zone 7)
Faculty advisor: Maged A. Youssef, PhD, P.Eng.
PCI producer: Prestressed Systems Inc.; Windsor, Ontario (Nebojsa Mladenovic, LEL)
Student team: Reem Tabbara, Ahmed Mansour Ibrahim, Ahmed Elshaer, Jad Atwe, Dana Elfar, Boqiang Zhu, Erdal Celap, Mohamed Mansour, Moustafa Aboutabikh, Aiham Adawi
Points: 48.25
Award: $1000
Ninth place: The University of Alabama; Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Zone 6)*
Faculty advisor: Sriram Aaleti, PhD, P.Eng.
PCI producer: Gate Precast; Monroeville, Alabama (Mark Ledkins)
Student team: Nathan Klenke, Andrew Lasdell, Vidya Sagar
Points: 47.25
Award: $1000
Tenth place (tie): Red River College; Winnipeg, Manitoba (Zone 7)
Faculty advisor: Robin Hutchinson, PhD, P.Eng.
PCI producer: Lafarge Canada, Inc; Winnipeg, Manitoba (Ifan Lim)
Student team: Paul Desautels, John Kliever
Points: 46.00
Award: $1000
Tenth place (tie): Northern Arizona University; Flagstaff, Arizona (Zone 1)
Faculty advisor: Robin Tuchscherer, PhD, PE
PCI producer: Tpac (a Kiewit Western Company); Phoenix, Arizona (Abdullah Kassab)
Student team: Abdullah Alahaddad, Mingyang Chen, Brian Bloom, Catherine Irvine
Points: 46.00
Award: $1000
Twelfth place (tie): University of Washington [Team 1]; Seattle, Washington (Zone 1)
Faculty advisor: John Stanton, PhD
PCI producer: Concrete Technology Corporation; Tacoma, Washington (Austin Maue)
Student team: Bryan Lee, Jorden Cox, Hyung Kim, Alec Yeutter
Points: 45.00
Award: $500
Twelfth place (tie): The University of Kansas [Red Team]; Lawrence, Kansas (Zone 3)Faculty advisor: Robert Lyon, PhD
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures, Inc; Kansas City, Kansas (Terry Fleck)
Student team: Abdulaziz Almarshad, Yaseen Aseem, Jessica Galvis, Xiangxiong Kong, Donald Spradling, Madison Strutman
Points: 45.00
Award: $500
Fourteenth place: California State University, Sacramento; Sacramento, California
Faculty advisor: Eric Matsumoto, PhD
PCI producer: Clark Pacific; West Sacramento, California (Mathew Rosatelli)
Student team: Matthew Rosatelli, Sean Ornelas-Linter, Matthew Wicks, Matthew Gonzalez, Michael Reynolds, Jacob Edwards, Khan Nguyen, Michael Lucas, Brian Ellis, Daniel Saechao
Points: 44.50
Award: $500
Fifteenth place: University of Windsor; Winsor, Ontario (Zone 7)
Faculty advisor: Amr ElRagaby, PhD
PCI producer: The Prestressed Group; Windsor, Ontario (Neb Mladenovic)
Student team: Firas Abdulkhaleq, Mohnad Nabhan, Rama Nabhan, Jihad Zaher
Points: 44.25
Award: $500
Sixteenth place: Norwich University; Northfield, Vermont (Zone 5)
Faculty advisor: Edwin Schmeckpeper, PhD
PCI producer: J. P. Carrara & Sons; Middlebury, Vermont (Ben Cota)
Student team: Edmund Hayes, Richard Veno, John Lobkowicz
Points: 39.75
Award: $250
Seventeenth place: Fanshawe College; London, Ontario, Canada
Faculty advisors: Soloman Asantey, PhD, P. Eng. / Amneh Kalloush, M., Eng., P. Eng.
PCI producer: The Prestressed Group; Windsor, Ontario, Canada (Nebojsa Mladenovic)
Student team: David Seward, Leanna Badke, Peter VanderSterre, Kyle Underwood, Cameron Wilson, Sean Strutt, Dimitri Giannakopoulos
Points: 36.75
Award: $250
Eighteenth place: Colorado State University; Fort Collins, Colorado
Faculty advisors: Rebecca Atadero, PhD
PCI producer: Rocky Mountain Prestress; Denver, Colorado (Graham Allen)
Student team: Sushant Ajay Admuthe, Seth Joseph Boesch, Vaishak Gopi, Prajwal Mysore Prakash
Points: 34.50
Award: $250
Nineteenth place: Minnesota State University, Mankato; Mankato, Minnesota
Faculty advisor: Farhad Reza, PhD
PCI producer: Wells Concrete; Wells, Minnesota (Gregg Jacobson)
Student team: Chase Radue, Jerry Schimmel, Ben Rosol, Jordan Rynish, Khalid Aldalbahy, , Mahad Osman, Moath Aldalbahy
Points: 34.25
Award: $250
Twentieth place: University of California, San Diego (Team 1); San Diego, CaliforniaFaculty advisor: Jose Restrepo, PhD
PCI producer: Midstate Precast
Student team: Kyle Buffo
Points: 23.50
Award: $250
Best Report
The judging committee considers the overall presentation of the report when deciding on a best report winner. In addition to verifying the report contains all the requested sections and required signatures, judges look for clear presentation of data, professional look and formatting, and an overall well-written report. This year, two entries were clear standouts and both were awarded the best report distinction.
University of Washington [Team 2]; Seattle, Washington (Zone 1)
Faculty advisor: John Stanton, PhD
PCI producer: Concrete Technology Corporation; Tacoma, Washington (Austin Maue)
Student team: Lardo Wang, Wai Lok Chung, Suki Ngan, Yousef Alshaba, Givens Lam
Award: $250
Best Video
Contest requirements include a video taken of the beam being tested. Teams are encouraged to be as creative as they wish when preparing the final video. Videos with a storyline related to the big beam competition are clear standouts and the judging committee may elect an entry to receive a best video award.
Western University; London, Ontario, Canada (Zone 7)
Faculty advisor: Maged A. Youssef, PhD, P.Eng.
PCI producer: Prestressed Systems Inc.; Windsor, Ontario (Nebojsa Mladenovic, LEL)
Student team: Reem Tabbara, Ahmed Mansour Ibrahim, Ahmed Elshaer, Jad Atwe, Dana Elfar, Boqiang Zhu, Erdal Celap, Mohamed Mansour, Moustafa Aboutabikh, Aiham Adawi
Award: $250
Special Judges Award
The Judges have presented a Special Judges Award to the University of Alabama. A first time participant, UA finished 9th overall and had a report and video worthy of consideration for Best Report and Best Video. The Judges were particularly impressed by the “Lessons Learned” section of both the report and video. Citing this as one of best examples they had seen of the “spirit of the contest,” the Judges have singled out the University of Alabama for special commendation.
The University of Alabama; Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Zone 6)*
Faculty advisor: Sriram Aaleti, PhD
PCI producer: Gate Precast; Monroeville, Alabama (Mark Ledkins)
Student team: Nathan Klenke, Andrew Lansdell, Vidya Sagar Ronanki
Award: $500
*New school to competition
Founded in 1954, The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) is the technical institute for the precast concrete structures industry. PCI develops, maintains, and disseminates the body of knowledge for designing, fabricating, and constructing precast concrete structures. PCI provides technical resources, certification for companies and individuals, continuing education, as well as conducts research and development projects, conventions, conferences, awards programs and much more.
PCI members include precast concrete manufacturers, companies that provide products and services to the industry, precast concrete erectors, and individual members such as architects, consultants, contractors, developers, educators, engineers, materials suppliers, service providers, and students.
