New Orleans (NOLA) - The University of New Orleans ASCE student chapter experienced another year of success at the 2009 ASCE Deep South Student Conference at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. The steel bridge team repeated as regional champions, the concrete canoe team finished in a tie for 2nd place, the environmental competition team captured 2nd place, and the mystery event team captured 3rd place.

On Friday morning, all of the participating schools gathered at the ASU Convocation Center for the steel bridge competition, technical paper presentation, and concrete canoe oral presentation, and environmental competition. The steel bridge team dominated the field as Ali Tareh, Raymond Meladine, and Jesse Adams assembled the bridge in just over nine and one-half minutes. The team won first place in five of six categories: aesthetics, construction speed, construction economy, structural efficiency, and lightness. It captured second place in stiffness. The first place victory resulted in a berth in the 2009 National Student Steel Bridge Competition to be held May 22-23 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. In order to be eligible for this event, ASCE mandates that each school participate in a technical paper competition held at each regional conference, usually according to the rules of the National Daniel W. Mead Student Paper Contest. Christopher Rau presented his paper on “Sustainability and Civil Engineering,” the topic of this year’s Mead contest; the UNO students and faculty who attended his presentation were pleased with his efforts. The environmental team, consisting of Kayode Adewumi, Marcus Maier, Daniel Flores, and Manuel Mosquera, designed a water filter using sand and other materials.

On Saturday, all the schools gathered at Craighead Forest Park for the canoe races, the mystery event, and surveying competition. UNO was scheduled first to perform the swamp (buoyancy) test; however, the team experienced an unfortunate battle with the weather. The back end of a strong cold front ushered a fierce surge of cold air that caused waves of nearly a foot in height to move across the lake. Several canoe team members including Mallory Davis, Daniel Bobeck, and Jenni Schindler quickly tried to remove the test water from the canoe and bring it back to the shore. Shortly after they did, a strong wave moved onshore and overturned the canoe, inducing a crack from side to side near the midpoint. The judges suspended the contest for nearly a half hour as the strong wind and hard rain continued to move through the park. Most team members, faculty members, and spectators fled to their cars to avoid catching illness, while some waited out the storm under the nearby picnic shelter. After the rain stopped and the winds slightly subsided, the judges resumed the swamp test for the other schools. Over the course of about an hour, the canoe team members as well as their supporters quickly improvised a plan to correct this situation. They used several rolls of duct tape to patch up the crack as well as provide reinforcement several feet on either side on both the top and bottom of the canoe. The wave action refused to significantly subside; so after the swamp test, the judges announced a break for lunch and subsequently called for a team captain’s meeting to discuss an abbreviated race schedule. They reached a final agreement that only one race would occur. Each school would race 2 men and 2 women together on the endurance race course. Daniel Bobeck, Manuel Mosquera, Jenni Schindler, and Mallory Davis raced “Floatilla the Hun” for about seven and one-half minutes, finishing 5th in the race event. Thanks to the leadership demonstrated by them and their fellow ASCE students by successfully patching it up, they returned to the finish line with virtually no leakage. The only water that entered the canoe was a result of the paddling action along the race course. The mystery event team, consisting of Ali Tareh, Kayode Adewumi, and Daniel Flores, designed a miniature water tower consisting of plastic drinking straws, a plastic drinking cup, and small needles pierced through the cup. The judges measured each team for their ability to design the tower to optimize holding water at the highest possible height

On Saturday evening, all the schools gathered at the Convocation Center ballroom for the Awards Banquet. The ASU student chapter hosted as guest speaker Todd Huston, a handicapped mountain climber and author who set the world record of visiting the highest point of each of the 50 states in the U.S. in the shortest amount of time (66 days, the previous record was 101 days by a non-handicapped British man). Todd described his experience with having to have his right leg amputated after a nearly-fatal water-skiing accident as a teenager. He showed a slide show of photos of his visits to the highest point in every state on his own after a company who offered to pay for him to do so withdrew their offer. He offered advice to all the students that there is no problem they can not overcome as long as they maintain the will to do so.

The UNO ASCE chapter is very proud of their accomplishments this school year. While it is disappointed in failing to reach the National Concrete Canoe competition, it is excited for its steel bridge team’s dominating triumph and wishes all the team members the best of luck when they venture to Las Vegas in May. The chapter is thankful for the support provided by Dr. Gianna Cothren, Dr. Michael Folse, and Mr. Byron Landry in the steel bridge and concrete canoe projects and for the companies that have contributed to our chapter’s funding this year. The chapter hopes to build upon the successful efforts of the last 2 conferences when it hosts the 2010 ASCE Deep South Student Conference next spring.

- Chris Rau, ASCE UNO Student Chapter