WKU News
WKU civil engineers win Ohio Valley regional conference
- Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
Concrete canoe, steel bridge teams advance to national competitions
WKU civil engineering students, faculty and staff attended the 2016 Ohio Valley Student Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.
WKU civil engineering students finished first overall in the 2016 Ohio Valley Student Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the concrete canoe and steel bridge teams advanced to national competitions.
A total of 391 civil engineering students from 14 colleges and universities from Ohio, Kentucky and western Pennsylvania competed March 31-April 2 at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
Concrete canoe
WKU finished first overall in the concrete canoe competition for the second year in a row and qualified for the National Concrete Canoe Competition June 9-11 at the University of Texas at Tyler. The team placed first in design paper and oral presentation, and second in final product. In the canoe races, WKU finished first in co-ed sprint and second in all other races including men’s and women’s sprint, and men’s and women’s endurance.
“Having advised the WKU Concrete Canoe team for over 20 years now, each year seems to bring different challenges,” said Professor Matthew Dettman, concrete canoe team faculty advisor. “Some years things really fall into place and other years they don’t. This year Murphy’s Law showed up significantly more often than in years past; however, this team was able to step up to the challenge and overcome each time. They never quit and worked hard to bring the best possible product to the competition and they performed extremely well. We won the competition by 1 percentage point which meant every single aspect of the competition really mattered. When we absolutely had to have a win in parts of the competition they delivered. I’m very proud of this team and look forward to the National Championships in June.”
Concrete canoe team members include team co-captains Kayla Frye of Nancy and David Miller of Louisville; Taylor Bowling of London; Jared Claiborne of Scottsville; Grayson Bills of Greensburg; Stewart Parker and Austin Reynolds of Owensboro; Gavin Houchins of Bowling Green; Sean McCarty of Campbellsville; Jonathan Turner of Paducah; Trey Baston of Tompkinsville; Gavin Young of Glasgow; Elizabeth Cardwell of Russellville; Mohammed Alajmi and Mohmoud Alfailakawi of Kuwait City, Kuwait; Tyler Baker of Lawrenceburg; Zach Thorpe of Cadiz; Caitlin Brown of Hartford; Megan Jones of Glasgow; and Rachael Wilson of Elkton.
Steel bridge
In the steel bridge competition, WKU finished third overall and advanced to the National Student Steel Bridge Competition May 27-28 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This is the fourth year in a row that the team qualified for the national competition. The team placed first in display, second in construction speed and economy, and third in efficiency.
“The team this year decided to design and build a magnificent curved steel arch truss bridge,” said Dr. Shane Palmquist, steel bridge team faculty advisor. “This required an extreme level of detail in terms of member and connection design as well as careful attention to fabrication and building of the bridge. I am so proud of their dedication and accomplishment. This team of young men and women are extremely talented and deserving of praise.”
Steel bridge team members include team tri-captains James Thomason and Drake Riley of Bowling Green and Daniel Hammer of Tompkinsville; Caitlin Brown of Hartford; Colton Dorris of Clarksville, Tennessee; Jessica Collins of Somerset; Taylor McMurtry of Hendersonville, Tennessee; Cory Smith of Whitesville; Lacey Martin of Glasgow; Sarah Hay of Louisa; and Nathan Hughes, Franklyn Perez and Fahad Alhumaid, all of Bowling Green.
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