ASCE chapter wins first place at regional conference

ASCE Chapter members display their awards after the Carolinas Conference banquet. The chapter won first place overall as well as first place in the hydraulics, transportation and environmental competitions. (Photo: Sam Dennard)

The Georgia Tech chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers won the top overall chapter award at the regional Carolinas Conference April 5-7.

The student group also won the hydraulics, transportation and environmental competitions and placed in the top three in four other categories.

“Since this was my last conference, seeing all of our teams perform so well was really special, especially the teams led by freshman and sophomores,” said Caroline Staton, ASCE chapter president. “[A] highlight was hearing Georgia Tech called so many times at the awards banquet and watching all of our deserving students go up to receive their trophies.”

“This group of students exemplifies the very best that Georgia Tech has to offer,” said David Scott, the chapter’s faculty adviser. “They amply demonstrated the type of quality found in the Institute student body."

The Carolinas Conference gathers student chapters from the region for a business meeting, technical presentations, competitions, and social activities. The Georgia Tech chapter has been on a tear in recent years, advancing to the national steel bridge competition in 2017 and winning the national Daniel W. Mead paper competition in 2016.

"Our success with the hydraulics competition was only possible because of the undeniable support from my peers and staff,” said Mia Pendergast, who led this year’s hydraulics team. “Although we faced obstacles, our effective communication, dedication, and innovative thinking allowed our design to be the most efficient hydraulically as well as economically."

"Pre-conference preparation was key,” said Caroline Efferth, the environmental team leader. “When I looked around the room at the other teams, their designs could have easily been modified to work had they tested them beforehand and fixed the flaws. I’m glad that [our] team tested beforehand and worked from there. It just goes to show that preparation pays off."

Left: The ASCE concrete canoe team launches their vessel for the women’s sprint race, where chapter president Caroline Stanton and conference chair Alesa Stallman placed second after winning their heat. (Photo: Vy Le) Right: The ASCE chapter’s steel bridge build team, left to right: Zonglin “Jack” Li, Josh Buth, Jason Tam and Peter Psaltakis. (Photo: Annie Yu Meng)

After a remarkable run last year, the captain of the steel bridge team and several team members returned with high hopes. But a last-minute hardware issue ended their chance for a repeat win, according to team leader Mihai Mavrodin.

“Even though the team didn't make it, everyone gained valuable experience and had a great time,” he said.

“Tons of effort went into preparing for conference, especially steel bridge and concrete canoe, which are yearlong projects. Our captains for both of those teams, Mihai Mavrodin and Michael Waters, put in countless hours and did a great job managing their projects,” Stanton said, noting that staff members Blake Baklini, Jeremy Mitchell and Andy Udell were instrumental in helping the students prepare for the events.

“The smaller competitions like concrete cornhole, hydraulics, and environmental all did extremely well because they put in the time to plan, test and improve their designs — they truly implemented the engineering process, and it paid off. I'm so proud of everyone who attended.”

It was a busy night at the ASCE Carolinas Conference awards banquet for the Georgia Tech team. From left to right: Mia Pendergast and Caroline Efferth with their first-place awards in the environmental and hydraulics competitions, concrete canoe team members Ben Weishaar and Conner Szeto with the award for their display presentation, and transportation team leader Juwon LP Drake and environmental team member Taylor Thomas with their first-place awards. (Photos: Danny Maciolek, Mia Pendergast, Lin Htet Kyaw)