UB-ASCE Places Third Overall in the 2014 ASCE Upstate New York Regional Student Conference

The annual event includes a steel bridge competition, a concrete canoe competition, and other professional/technical presentations and activities.

In the steel bridge competition, UB brought home second place overall for the second consecutive year. The result earns the team an invitation to compete at the National Student Steel Bridge Competition, in which UB earned 11^th place last year.

According to Ryan O’Malley, a civil engineering sophomore who helped erect UB’s bridge in the timed event at Cornell’s Lynah Rink, the bridge’s total deflection was greater than what the team had originally calculated. The team’s build time of about 11 minutes was also inflated when compared to its practice runs.

“We became nervous as we didn't know where other schools stood going into the weigh-in,” O’Malley said. “After we weighed in at 135 lbs., the nerves subsided and we knew that we would most likely be in the top three. Hopefully, our second place finish at regionals will fuel a top-ten finish at nationals.”

The team will continue to work on improving its build time until nationals, which will be hosted at the University of Akron in Ohio on May 23-24.

In the concrete canoe competition, UB earned sixth place overall with its entry “Aldebaran,” named for the brightest star in the constellation Taurus or the “Eye of the Taurus.” By utilizing glow-in-the-dark concrete for the stars in the constellation on the vessel's design, the UB team became the first in North America to use the aggregate in a canoe.

Concrete canoe team members competed on the Cayuga Inlet in five different race events, including a slalom course, a sprint competition, and four-person endurance races. UB placed second overall in the race portion behind Montreal's École de Technologie Supériour.

One of most exciting moments in the competition came during the final leg of the coed sprint, said ASCE Faculty Advisor Todd Snyder. Due to the low design of the canoe, which was chosen by the students to minimize its weight, the boat had very little freeboard or extra height above the water. As a result, the canoe began to fill with water.

“The canoe looked very low in the water as they completed three of the four legs of the sprint, and then started to sink about 10 yards from the finish line,” said Snyder. “Showing great persistence, the students ditched their paddles and swam the canoe across the finish line and still managed to take second place in the race!"

Other events at the regional competition included an ethics paper and oral presentation competition in which Anthony Brais placed fourth, and an AutoCAD competition in which Dan Smith placed second. UB also placed first in the mystery competition, which turned out to be a giant Jenga game made out of foam blocks.

About 40 students represented UB at the competition, where they competed with other civil engineering students from Broome Community College, Cornell University, Clarkson University, École Polytechnique Montreal, École de Technologie Supériour, Hudson Valley Community College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Canton, SUNY IT, Syracuse University, and West Point. The conference, hosted by Cornell University, took place on April 24-26, 2014.