Evan Boso,
Junior, Civil Engineering
Athens, OH 29 January 2013 – Over this year, I have been working with a team of students to design, fabricate and build a steel bridge. The purpose of this is to compete in ASCE’s (American Society of Civil Engineers) Ohio Valley Student Conference. The conference includes many other universities within the Ohio Valley, such as Ohio State, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Akron, and Cincinnati. The conference brings these schools together, holding competitions such as an environmental competition and concrete canoe, as well as having guest speakers. This provides the students an
ability to make friends, network, and find out exactly what branch of civil engineering they may want to get into.
The competition includes all stages of process: conception, design, fabrication, and erection. The hope is that those participating in the competition gain practical experience in structural design, fabrication, construction planning, organization, project management, and teamwork.
I’ve personally enjoyed this working on this project. It’s provided me an opportunity to work with other people in my major I haven’t previously spoke to. It’s also provided me an opportunity to work on something out of class that is more realistic than crunching numbers or working through theories, though a fair share of theory and number crunching were involved in the process.
