WKU News

Top: WKU ASCE awards; middle: concrete canoe and balsawood bridge; bottom: steel bridge.

WKU civil engineering students have had their most impressive year to date.

ASCE chapter finalist for Ridgeway Award

The civil engineering student organization, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), encourages outreach, community service, hosting events and attendance at national ASCE events. Over the course of the 2018 calendar year, WKU students increased ASCE membership by 350 percent, increased meeting attendance by 200 percent, hosted 12 professional speaker, and worked charity events such as the Tractor Pull to Feed the Kids, the Potter’s Home Stocking Stuffer and a Habitat for Humanity build. As a result of their efforts, WKU ASCE was awarded the Most Improved Student Chapter and nominated as a Ridgeway Award finalist out of more than 350 ASCE student chapters worldwide. The Ridgeway Award is given the best overall student chapter. WKU is one of the five schools to be named a Ridgeway Award finalist; the Ridgeway Award will be announced in May.

Ohio Valley Student Conference

As part of ASCE, WKU annually competes in the Ohio Valley Student Conference (OVSC), hosted this year in Akron, Ohio, on April 11-12. WKU civil engineering students competed against 15 schools across Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania in Surveying, Site Design, Balsawood Bridge, Concrete Frisbee, Geotechnical, Environmental, and Technical Paper and Concrete Canoe competitions.

In Balsawood Bridge, WKU female team -- Julia Davis of Louisville, Katherine Caldwell of Frankfort and Abigail Swartz of Elizabethtown -- placed first, and WKU male team -- Taylor Collins of Oakland and David Judd of Louisville -- placed third. The Site Design team -- Colton McGlone of Harrodsburg, Cameron Esters of Bowling Green and Tate Harris of Crab Orchard -- placed third.

WKU’s concrete canoe team excelled in the main event of the ASCE competition in all categories, placing first in Design Paper, Oral Presentation, Final Product, Women’s Sprint, Women’s Slalom, and Co-ed races, while placing second in the Men’s Sprint and Men’s Slalom races. This gave WKU a final total of 99 out of 100 possible points, dethroning 2018 regional champion and fifth place team at the 2018 National Concrete Canoe Competition, Youngstown State University. The ASCE OVSC Regional win qualifies WKU concrete canoe team to compete June 6 in the National Concrete Canoe Competition in Melbourne, Florida.  The team’s goal is to place Top 5 at nationals for the second time in four years. This will mark WKU’s 16th appearance at the national competition.

Canoe team members include co-captains Katy Bridges of Merry Oaks and Morgan Hertelendy of Louisville; presenters Colby Nicholson of Manchester, Luke Edmunds of Beckton, and Kaitlin Berry of Manchester; paddlers Bethany Vogt of Murray, Jared Searcy of Bowling Green, Logan Bell of Summer Shade, Rebecca Hurley of Park City, and Trey Emmert of Tompkinsville; and team members Austin Loney of Madisonville, Stacey Beutjer of Johns Creek, Georgia, Bailey Maloney of Owensboro, Chris Henderlight of Somerset, Colson Hunt of Somerset, Jacob Smiley of Madisonville, Jared Murray of Somerset, Abdulkareem Alnesafi of Kuwait, Mallory Hadley of Somerset, Matt Lawrence of Morning View, and Mohammad Abutaleb of Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

AISC Steel Bridge competition

WKU also competed in the OVSC AISC Steel Bridge competition on April 13. Youngstown State University won the competition with an innovative truss bridge design. The only other school featuring a truss bridge was WKU; the remaining bridges featured a beam bridge design, including two that collapsed during the load test. WKU’s sleek and slender bridge pushed the limits of strength, stability and lightweight truss design. Six WKU bridge builders constructed the bridge quickly at just over 16 minutes. WKU’s bridge team passed the lateral load test, but during the last 100 pounds of the 2,500-pound vertical load test, the bridge laterally swayed just out of a set boundary and was disqualified. While this was not the students’ desired outcome, faculty advisor Dr. Shane Palmquist was pleased with the students’ performance, pushing the envelope of truss bridge design and construction. The WKU Bridge team worked tirelessly to design, fabricate and construct a very competitive truss bridge.

Bridge team members include co-captains Matt Gregory of Monticello and Samuel Robinson of Lancaster; bridge builders Blake Brown of Hartford, Andrew Bell of Herndon, Naser Albuloushi of Kuwait City, Kuwait, Tochukwu Emecheta of Lagos, Nigeria, and Brian Nealon of Owensboro, and Devin Higdon of Bowling Green; and team members Ali Akrouf of Kuwait City, Kuwait, Khalid Musallam of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Rakan Alharthi of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Fahad Al-Khayat of Baghdad, Iraq, Austin Roberts of Somerset, Van Hong of Bowling Green, Matt Lawson of Versailles, and Cameron Esters of Bowling Green.

The bridge and canoe will be on display on the main floor of WKU Engineering and Biological Sciences Building.

Contact: Tyler Baker, (270) 745-3495