UH Manoa to host collegiate engineering competition

700 students from 17 engineering schools expected to compete

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Roger Babcock, (808) 286-0758
UH Manoa College of Engineering
Jessica Agsalda, (808) 265-0021
UH Manoa ASCE Student Chapter
Posted: Mar 25, 2009

The University of Hawaii at Manoa will be the site for the 2009 Pacific South West Regional Conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) concrete canoe and steel bridge collegiate competitions, April 2-4, 2009.



Seventeen teams from universities in Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada will be in Honolulu to compete in a series of design competitions that will include building steel bridges and racing concrete canoes. The steel bridge competition will be held on April 3rd from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center on the UH Manoa campus. The concrete canoe competition will be held on April 4th from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Keehi Lagoon. Events are free and open to the public.



The annual event, which was hosted by UH Manoa in 1994, is being organized by the UH Manoa ASCE Student Chapter. Participating schools include: USC, UCLA, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC San Diego, Northern Arizona University, Loyola Marymount University, University of Arizona, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State University, UC Irvine, Cal State Northridge, Arizona State University, UNLV and UH Manoa.





The steel bridge competition challenges teams of students to design and build a 1:10 scale model that will hold at least 2,500 pounds of weight with minimal deflection and cost. Bridges must be built on site and are judged by professional engineers and architects in six categories, including construction, speed, lightness, stiffness, construction economics, aesthetics and structural efficiency.



The concrete canoe competition challenges students to design and build a canoe that floats with a mixture of cement, water and aggregate. Entries must pass a floatation test prior to competing in the canoe races.



Competition sponsors include Sam O. Hirota, Inc.; UH Manoa College of Engineering; Swinerton Builders; ASCE Hawaii Section; Austin Tsutsumi; CH2MHill; Pankow; Healy Tibbits Builders; Inc.; Fukunaga & Associates, Inc.; HDR; Koga Engineering & Construction, Inc.; Parsons Brinkerhoff; Delta Construction Corporation; Engineering Concepts, Inc.; Engineering Partners, Inc.; Engineers Surveyors Hawaii, Inc.; Iwamoto & Associates, LLC; Kai Hawaii; Manthos Engineering, LLC; Sato & Associates, Inc.; The Limtiaco Consulting Group; R.M. Towill Corporation; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.;, Akinaka & Associates, Ltd.; BASF; Bow Engineering & Development, Inc.; Brown & Caldwell; Hawaii Air Cargo; Hawaiian Cement; Macsteel; Oceanit; OK Hardware & Construction Supply, Inc.; Pacific Geotechnical Engineers, Inc.; Royal Construction; SSFM International and the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii.



A complete schedule of activities, times and locations are available at the Pacific South West Regional Competition 2009 website at http://pswrc2009.asce-uhmanoa.org.



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