For a weekend this spring, Drexel’s campus will be bustling with engineering students from universities throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Drexel’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter will host the annual 2016 Mid-Atlantic Region Student Conference which will bring over 300 students from 14 universities to Drexel to participate in this 3-day conference (April 22-24). This conference includes social activities and team competitions where students will compete to win the title of Mid-Atlantic Region champions.
Competitions to be held at Drexel during this conference are:
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Concrete Canoe competition - Teams compete in lighter-than-water reinforced concrete vessels against each other. Speed counts, but so do the technical and aesthetic merits of the vessel. Display will be on Saturday with the races held on Sunday.
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Steel Bridge competition - Teams will design and fabricate 22’ long cantilevered bridges to be light-weight, strong enough to bear 2500 lbs with minimal deflections, and rapidly assembled by a small team. Display will be on Saturday with the competition held on Sunday.
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GeoWall competition - Students compete in a challenge to build a model mechanically stabilized earth wall that uses the least amount of reinforcement needed to support the retained soil plus staged vertical surcharge loading. Poster displays and wall construction will both be held on Saturday.
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Technical Paper competition - Students will complete a paper on a topic relevant to civil engineering and on Saturday at the competition they will present their findings to the judges.
The top winners from the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge competitions will go on to participate at the national level.
Events on Saturday will be held at Drexel’s University City campus and Sunday’s events, including the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge competitions, are scheduled to be held at Cooper River in Camden County, New Jersey. ASCE Philadelphia’s Younger Member Forum (YMF) will host a social event on Friday night.
Drexel has been participating in this conference for 25+ years. This year’s conference is being organized by Colleen Hyde, a senior in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, with help from
Drexel ASCE officers. Professor Joseph Martin has been the ASCE faculty advisor for 25+ years.
The conference is open to the public, and college students, young students, professionals, and faculty are encouraged to attend. If you are a Drexel student and are interested in joining either the Concrete Canoe or Steel Bridge teams for competition, or to be a volunteer at this conference, please reach out to Drexel ASCE at MidAtlanticASCE@gmail.com
More information can be found on the Drexel ASCE website.