The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Contributed Photo Oregon State American Society of Civil Engineers club members compete at the steel bridge competition in Helena, Mont.

Students who are part of the American Society of Civil Engineers club recently traveled to Helena, Mont., to participate in the regional round of a bridge-building competition in hopes of qualifying for a national competition in June.

The conference was held the first weekend of April, and was divided into three main categories for competition: steel bridge, concrete canoe and writing and presentation of a technical paper.

Thomas Miller is an associate professor in civil and construction engineering, and is also the ASCE faculty advisor. Miller accompanied the three student teams at the conference where he said they showed great persistence.

"Both the canoe team and the steel bridge team worked very hard and overcame a number of difficulties along the way," Miller said. "I am very proud of our students."

Only one person enters the technical paper competition from each school. Kristi Currans, a senior in civil engineering, was the one who participated in this portion of the conference.

This year's professional paper topic was "Sustainability and Civil Engineering." The rules stated that the paper must be written in a technical format by only one person and cannot exceed 2,000 words.

Though the paper was submitted before the conference, Currans was required to make a five-minute presentation in front of three judges and a large audience, which was followed by a question and answer session.

Currans said the canoe and steel bridge teams were exceptionally supportive and attended her presentation. She said other schools didn't even remotely have the support that she did.

Currans presented her paper after embarking on an all-night, 18-hour drive, which included a pit stop at a Denny's restaurant in the middle of the night. Her paper discussed the engineering influence on the American lifestyle and suggested community involvement as a potential solution.

"The paper and presentation was so important because if the canoe or bridge teams placed in the top three, they would have an opportunity to go to nationals. But only if there was a paper submitted and presented, which was my job," Currans said. "And trust me, I wanted to go to Vegas."

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