2010 Big Beam design contest winners announced

The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute’s (PCI’s) Student Education Judging Committee recently selected the winners of the Engineering Student Design Competition, also known as the Big Beam Contest. First-place winners from each of the six PCI zones, along with the first-place winner in the international category (known as Zone 7), competed for the overall championship.
 
PCI’s Student Education Committee (Richard Miller, chair) manages the Big Beam Contest, which is sponsored by SIKA Corp. The objective is for teams of students to fabricate and test a precast, prestressed concrete beam with the help of local PCI Producer Members. Prizes are awarded for the most efficient design with the highest load capacity, best report, and other categories.
 

The winners and associated PCI Producer Members are as follows:
 
Overall championship

First place: University of South Florida, team 1, Tampa, Fla. (Zone 6)
Faculty advisor: Rajan Sen
Student team: Rick Cole, Justin Duncan, Frank Holz, Joe Paleveda, Jonida Pone, and Christopher Snee
PCI producer: Standard Concrete Products Inc., Tampa, Fla. (John Robertson)
Award: $2000 and other prizes
 
Second place: Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore. (Zone 1)
Faculty advisor: Keith Kaufman
Student team: Jill Folkestad, Gabriel Hoxmeier, Jared Trowbridge, Kenichi Nagao, and Benjamin Maue
PCI producer: Knife River Corp., Harrisburg, Ore. (Keith Kaufman)
Award: $1750 and other prizes
 
Third place: Norwich University, Northfield, Vt. (Zone 5)
Faculty advisor: Edwin Schmecupeper
Student team: Daniel Gosselin, Nicola Suren, Tim Boncek, Zach Stanton, Kenn Gallagher, and Seth Knihtila
PCI producer: JP Carrara & Sons Inc., Middlebury, Vt. (Benjamin Cota)
Award: $1500 and other prizes
 
Fourth place: University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, Neb. (Zone 3)
Faculty advisor: George Morcous
Student team: Halami Afshin, Henin Eliya, Toenies Nathanael, El Touny Sanaa, and Lakmon Kpandji
PCI producer: Concrete Industries Inc., Lincoln, Neb. (Rob Pearce)
Award: $1000 and other prizes
 
Fifth place: Red River College, Winnipeg, MB, Canada (Zone 7)
Faculty advisor: Robin Hutchinson
Student team: Tony Poirier, Matt Mendes, and Kent Petersen
PCI producer: Con-Force Structures, Winnipeg, MB, Canada (Walter Meadus)
Award: $1000 and other prizes
 
Sixth place: University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. (Zone 4)
Faculty advisor: Yahya Kurama
Student team: Andrew O’Donnell, Dustin Mix, Matt Hopke, Chelsea Dietrick, and Brittani Russell
PCI producer: StresCore Inc., South Bend, Ind. (John Reihl)
Award: $1000 and other prizes
 
Seventh place: University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. (Zone 2)
Faculty advisor: Thomas Kang
Student team: Joe Howell, Woosuk Kim, Jenny Bergen, and Joseph Tuttle
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (OKLA) Inc., Oklahoma City, Okla. (Michael F. Daly)
Award: $1000 and other prizes
 
Zone winners
Zone 1
First place: Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.
Faculty advisor: Keith Kaufman
Student team: Jill Folkestad, Gabriel Hoxmeier, Jared Trowbridge, Kenichi Nagao, and Benjamin Maue
PCI producer: Knife River Corp. Northwest (Keith Kaufman)
 
Second place: San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.
Faculty advisor: Daniel Merrick
Student team: Aaron Nam, Alex Jpuregui, Francisco Galan, and Bryce Lloyd
PCI producer: Walters, Wolf Precast (Doug Frost)
Award: $750
 
Zone 2
First place: University of Oklahoma Civil and Environmental Engineering, Norman, Okla.
Faculty advisor: Thomas Kang
Student team: Joe Howell, Woosuk Kim, Jenny Bergen, and Joseph Tuttle
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (OKLA) Inc. (Michael F. Daly)
 
Second place (tie): University of Texas at Austin
Faculty advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student team: Travis Lowe, Chris Clement, Eleanor Reynolds, Nikhil Inamdar, Priyanka Shirsat, Sivaramakrishnan Balaji, James Clayshulte, and Michelle Wilkinson
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $750
 
Second place (tie): University of Texas at Austin
Faculty advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student team: Jenna Halpern, David Grapsas, Ezra Hilton, Luca Magenes, Jorrit Vandenberg, Ethan Cotton, Juan Rodriguez, Dave Collins, and Chase Anderson
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $750
 
Second place (tie): University of Texas at Austin
Faculty advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student team: James Kleineck, Chris Williams, Alex Garde, Brenden Adams, Dave Garber, Eisake Nakamara, Kerry Kreitman, and Phillip Pesek
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $750
 
Fifth place: Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Faculty advisor: Fernando Fonseca
Student team: Andrew Dutson, Ammon Heier, Ryan Eastman, and Michael Embley
PCI producer: EnCon Utah LLC (Charles Leidholot)
 
Zone 3
First place: University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Faculty advisor: George Morcous
Student team: Hatami Afshin, Henin Eliya, Toenies Nathanael, El Touny Sanaa, and Lakmon Kpandji
PCI producer: Concrete Industries Inc. (Rob Pearce)
 
Second place (tie): South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, S.Dak.
Faculty advisor: M. R. Hansen
Student team: Victoria Borchard, James Kliwer, Brandon Fried, Matt Deardoff, S. K. Awal, and Ikhbayar Khurelbaatar
PCI producer: Gage Brothers (Chris Baer)
Award: $750
 
Second place (tie): University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.
Faculty advisor: Bob Lyon
Student team: P. J. Karasek, Austin Jackson, Daniel Nagati, and Clara Weber
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (Bruno Burgess)
Award: $750
 
Third place: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, S.Dak.
Faculty advisor: M. R. Hansen
Student team: Ben Sampice, Brent Morford, Rachal Sharma, and Kiehore Mechani
PCI producer: Gage Brothers (Chris Baer)
Award: $500
 
Fifth place: University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.
Faculty advisor: Bob Lyon
Student team: Marcus Carrillo, Andy Coffman, John Weeks, and Miles Whetsel
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (Bruno Burgess)
 
Sixth place: University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.
Faculty advisor: Ganesh Thiagarajan
Student team: Sheetal V. Ajgaonkar, Anirudha K. Vasudivan, Matt Bendorf, Rasekh Rahimtodah, and Anmar Chapuk
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (Michael Eilers)
 
Zone 4
First place: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
Faculty advisor: Yahya Kurama
Student team: Andrew O’Donnell, Dustin Mix, Matt Hopke, Chelsea Dietrick, and Brittani Russell
PCI producer: StresCore Inc. (John Reihl)
 
Second place: Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va.
Faculty advisor: Wael Zatar
Student team: Billy Varney, Shaun Long, Tom Rogers, Viet Cao, Hien Pham, and Jay Baisden
PCI producer: Carr Concrete (Burr Stanley)
Award: $750
 
Third place: West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.
Faculty advisor: Hung-Lian Roger-Chen
Student team: Kane Gyovai, Gregory Michaelson, and Manish Roy
PCI producer: Sidley Precast (Robert Narchus)
Award: $500
 
Zone 5
First place: Norwich University, Northfield, Vt.
Faculty advisor: Edwin Schmecupeper
Student team: Daniel Gosselin, Nicola Suren, Tim Boncek, Zach Stanton, Kenn Gallagher, and Seth Knihtila
PCI producer: JP Carrara and Sons Inc. (Benjamin Cota)
 
Second place
: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.
Faculty advisor: Clay Naito
Student team: Mark Beacraft, Ying-Cheng Lin, and Joseph States
PCI producer: Northeast Prestressed Products (Michael Ridge)
Award: $750
 
Third place: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.
Faculty advisor: Clay Naito
Student team: Tim Brauning and Cass Schanck
PCI producer: Northeast Prestressed Products (Michael Ridge)
Award: $500
 
Fourth place
: Tufts University, Medford, Mass.
Faculty advisor: Brian Brenner
Student team: Paul Rosenstrauchm, Michael Sidebottom, and Christopher Follen
PCI producer: Oldcastle Precast-Rotondo Precast (Bill Evans)
 
Fifth place: West Point, West Point, N.Y.
Faculty advisor: Eric Crispino
Student team: Razvan Cojocaru, Mark Garrison, and Ross Hartmann
PCI producer: Oldcastle Building Systems (David Wan)
 
Sixth place: Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y.
Faculty advisor: Levon Minnetyan
Student team: Quinn Carnavan, Jake D’Achille, B. Kelsey, Steve Brindale, J. Griffin, and Ryan Hogan
PCI producer: Jefferson Concrete (Mark Losee)
 
Seventh place: University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Faculty advisor: Sergio Brena
Student team: David Fortin, Meghan Krupka, and Mahyar Mahdavi
PCI producer: Unistress Corp. (Beth Mitchell/Yong Shin)
 
Zone 6
First place: University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.
Faculty advisor: Rajan Sen
Student team: Rick Cole, Justin Duncan, Frank Holz, Joe Paleveda, Jonida Pone, and Christopher Snee
PCI producer: Standard Concrete Products (John Robertson)
 
Second place: University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Fla.
Faculty advisor: Adel ElSafty
Student team: Matthew K. Graeff, Alex Lazowick, Steven Stuart, and Robert Bennett
PCI producer: Gate Concrete Products (Glen Switzer, Tom Newton)
Award: $750
 
Third place: University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.
Faculty advisor: Rajan Sen
Student team: Christopher Blair, Whitney Bloome, Jonathan Gill, David Grindley, and Nicole Pauley
PCI producer: Standard Concrete Products (John Robertson)
Award: $500
 
Fourth place: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
Faculty advisor: Rudolf Seracino
Student team: Brad McCoy, Kurtis Kennedy, Matt Heiser, Adolfo Obregon-Salinas, Erik Latta, Sami Syed, Zhao Chen, and Ahmad Ighwair
PCI producer: Metromont Corp. (Spring McEwen)
 
Zone 7
First place: Red River College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Faculty advisor: Robin Hutchinson
Student team: Tony Poirier, Matt Mendes, and Kent Petersen
PCI producer: Con-Force Structures (Walter Meadus)
 
Second place: Fanshawe College, London, Ontario, Canada
Faculty advisor: Solomon Asantey
Student team: Benjamin Cowey, Shane Brimsma, Andrew Okolisan, Jonathan Lampton, and Ed Jollife
PCI producer: Prestressed Systems Inc. (Nebojsa Mladenovic)
Award: $750
 
Outstanding report winner
Best report: University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. (Zone 4)
Faculty advisor: Yahya Kurama
Student team: Andrew O’Donnell, Dustin Mix, Matt Hopke, Chelsea Dietrick, and Brittani Russell
PCI producer: StresCore Inc., South Bend (John Reihl)
Award: $250
 
Outstanding video winner
Best video: University of Texas at Austin
Faculty advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student team: James Kleineck, Chris Williams, Alex Garde, Brenden Adams, Dave Garber, Eisake Nakamara, Kerry Kreitman, and Phillip Pesek
PCI producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $250

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The 2011 Big Beam Contest rules are currently being prepared by the PCI Student Education Committee and will be available in Fall 2010. For information on this program, please contact Alex Morales at 312-360-3219 or [email protected].