CSU, Chico News

California State University, Chico’s award-winning engineering students captured another contest earlier this month in Sacramento when they won the Structural Engineers Association of Central California (SEAOCC) Design Contest.

CSU, Chico won the contest for the second year in a row, defeating CSU, Sacramento and UC Davis.

A team of five civil engineering students built a A-shaped, 5-by-15 foot, steel and wood structure in a timed assembly and then accurately predicted how, and at what load, their structure would collapse.

The same CSU, Chico students who won the structure contest are also on the team which won the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Regional Steel Bridge Competition in April. The students will take part in the national bridge-building competition this weekend, May 22-23, at Colorado State University.

Students in the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology have also won national competitions this spring manufacturing a poolside wheelchair lift and racing a human powered vehicle.

The structure design contest was held at CSU, Sacramento on Saturday, May 2, with the awards presentation before a SEAOCC meeting May 12. For coming in first place, CSU, Chico received $400 for its SEAOCC student chapter.

The participating students were Josh Wallace, Jon Mohle, Jason Zwinggi, Suzanne Combs and Brandon Summerrill. The faculty advisers for the team were professors Russell Mills and Joel Arthur. Shop technicians Jim Luallen and Mike Renwick were also instrumental in the fabrication of the structure.

“Probably the greatest reason for the success of Chico students at these events is the hands-on, practical nature of the civil engineering program at Chico State,” said Mills. “Also, there is fantastic teamwork among students, faculty and support staff, without which none of this would be possible.”

The competition had three phases: First, students had to write a report two weeks before the testing phase which consisted of their design philosophy, an analysis of the entire structure, results from laboratory tests of individual components of the structure and complete construction drawings.

The second phase of the competition was the assembly and loading of the structure. The assembly time for CSU, Chico’s structure was under five minutes, while the other teams required over 30 minutes to complete the assembly of their structures.

The final step of the competition was an oral presentation given before professional structural engineers at the May 12 SEAOCC meeting in Sacramento. The CSU, Chico team used computer simulations and presentation software to discuss the design and performance characteristics of their structure.

###

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 1998 at 8:19 am and is filed under 1998 Spring.