Steve Burns,
Senior, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Athens, OH 10 April 2013 – This semester two other ISE students and I were involved in an international computer simulation competition. The competition was a two month long project, put on by IIE (Institute of Industrial Engineers). We were given a problem statement about 2 months ago and along with some basic guidelines to follow. The top three teams from around the world, decided by a group of judges, get to travel to Puerto Rico to show off their projects with a chance to win first prize.

The problem statement was about a coal company’s coal shipping operation from three cities in the United States to four cities around the world. The overall goal of the project was to see if the current operation was successful and if not, then to provide a solution that will produce the lowest overall shipping costs for the company. The way we could change the operation was to change the number of ships that the company was using, and also route the ships differently around the world.

Animation was a big part of the judging for this competition. Below is a snapshot of the animation of our project. You can see some ships traveling from city to city, and the smaller screens are the individual cities where you can watch the ships coming into the shipping harbors.

This project was a lot of fun to work on. The problem statement was full of small details that could greatly influence the outcome; such as weather causing shipping ports to close or the cost it takes a ship to travel through different canals. It also gave our team a chance to participate in the student expo here at the university, where students from any discipline across campus come and show off projects they have been working on throughout the year.

ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition

Joe Cook,
Junior, Civil Engineering

Athens, OH 8 April 2013 – It floats!!! That was the big news for the members of the Ohio University student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This past weekend our student organization, which I am currently president of, competed in the Ohio Valley Student Conference in events such as concrete canoe, steel bridge, environmental engineering, surveying, and technical paper competitions. We competed against other ASCE student chapters in the Ohio Valley region such as Ohio State University, Akron, University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky, Youngstown State University, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Western Kentucky University, and Cleveland State University, the conference host this year.

Our biggest accomplishment this weekend was launching a canoe and bringing it home in one piece. This is the fourth consecutive year our organization has built a concrete canoe, and this is the first time the canoe didn’t fail structurally in the water or during transport. I was personally captain of the environmental engineering team, we developed a bench scale column filter to remove phosphorous, the major component in fertilizer and a major contributor to toxic algal blooms, from simulated storm water. Although the results aren’t currently available, our independent tests yielded promising results.

The coolest thing about my team’s design was the implementation of iron pigment we derived from acid mine drainage near campus. Using this source of iron we are effectively treating two water quality issues with one product. The following link is to a story about our concrete canoe team; note that our canoe was affectionately dubbed the Yellow Submarine. If you take a look at the pictures it becomes apparent why.

Read the Russ College news release for more details on the competition.

Preparing for the ASCE Steel Bridge Competition

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.

Judging the Future City Competition

Kelly McCoy,
Senior, Aviation

Athens, OH 24 January 2013 – Last weekend, the Engineering Ambassadors had a great opportunity to inspire younger students to be more involved in engineering and technology. On the morning of January 19, three of us traveled to Columbus to judge the Future City Competition. This competition is a national learning experience for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students where they work in teams with a mentor to deign futuristic models of large cities. 18 schools participated this year. Students incorporate current and future technologies and must include a variety of engineering ideas and disciplines, and must explain how their city will sustain itself. They use Sim City 4 Deluxe to make an interactive city, write a solution to an engineering problem, build a scale model of a section of their city using recycled materials, and show their work to a panel of judges with a short presentation.

As a judge, I got to see several presentations throughout the morning, and I was impressed with the thought and effort that some groups put into their projects. There were many models that incorporated a working electrical component, and the requirement of at least one moving part per model was fulfilled in very creative ways. Groups used materials such as cardboard, lightbulbs, bottles and lids, silverware, and various other common trash items to build their models.

This year the big engineering problem to solve dealt with water runoff in large developed cities. Groups used porous asphalt, rooftop gardens, and strategic reservoirs, among other things, to help solve the problem. Their models were judged not only for overall neatness and creativity, but for specific awards such as Most Innovative Design of Infrastructure Systems, or Best Communications Systems. The winner of this Regional competition would be sent to US Space Camp in Alabama and get the chance to compete in the National Competition in February.

These middle-schoolers definitely impressed us with their ingenuity and creativity, and it was fun to see their different interpretations of the future and their solutions to modern problems.

Winter Semester Courses

Joe Cook,
Junior, Civil Engineering

Athens, OH 22 January 2013 – Winter semester, time to shake off the dust and get back to class. This semester I have a really interesting course load. I’m taking a course called Water Quality Engineering that covers aquatic chemistry. The course deals heavily in chemistry, but the content we learn is very practical. The methods we learn allow me as a civil engineer to judge the condition of a sample of water based on chemical, biological, and physical composition. To put it simply, I can tell you if water is safe for swimming, drinking, or even laboratory use.

On the flip side I’m also taking a physical education course, bowling. Not the most strenuous activity, but it’s fun to pull myself away from the engineering side of things and just throw a 16 pound ball at some wood for 2 hours every other day.

In addition to classes, I was recently appointed president of the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter, and the duties I’ve assumed with that position are keeping me busy as well. I can’t wait to see our concrete canoe come out of the mold and get painted. I’m looking forward to the competition in April to prove our design and have some fun in Cleveland at our yearly conference.