16 March 2010 – A team of University of Delaware engineering students has taken top honors in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-Challenge Student Competition on Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall Construction.
The group, a mix of graduate and undergraduate students, included Thomas Costabile, Olivia Dalton, Jason Hertz, Majid Khabbazian, Lauren Lobo, Robert McGurk, James Taylor, Emily Valentino and Farshid Vahedifard. The team was co-advised by Christopher Meehan, assistant professor, and Dov Leshchinsky, professor, both in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Held at GeoFlorida 2010 on February 23, the competition required teams of students to design and construct a scaled-down model of a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall in which dry sand reinforced with paper is retained behind a paper wall that has been constructed in a plywood form. The event is judged on the wall’s capacity to support a design load, on the amount of reinforcement used, and on the quality of the design report.
Meehan likens the competition to the steel bridge and concrete canoe contests, which are also organized by ASCE, with the most notable difference being that the MSE wall competition is for students interested in geotechnical engineering, a specialized branch of civil engineering.
“This is the first year that UD has sent a student team to the national competition,” he says, “and we came away with the prestigious Atterberg Cup, defeating a team that has dominated the competition over the past few years in a close race. Kudos to our students who were involved with the team and who put a ton of hard work into their winning design.”
According to Leshchinsky, the UD students “took advantage of science.”
“Their written report was relevant to the design of a real structure,” he says, “while their constructed small wall took advantage of the inability of small-scale models to fully replicate full-scale structures. So the physical model was done in one way and the report in another. I think this is smart, as they played the game according to rules established by ASCE, and the results demonstrate their understanding of the principles involved.”
“We hope our showing at GeoFlorida will continue to draw attention to the many strengths of the undergraduate and graduate engineering programs here at UD,” McGurk says. “Conferences and competitions such as GeoFlorida really enable students to complement their education by interacting with industry professionals in a relaxed atmosphere and to discuss innovative solutions to challenges faced in the field.”
“I loved the experience,” says Lobo. “We had a small group that ranged in experience from freshmen to graduate students. None of us had ever done anything like this before, but we were willing to give it a shot. We spent about a month testing a few designs before writing a paper on our final choice. No one there expected us to win as a rookie team, but now I think they will be watching out for us next year. I’m excited to begin working on next year’s design.”
Financial support for the team was provided by Tencate Geosynthetics North America, HUESKER Inc., ADAMA Engineering, U.S. Silica Company, and the ASCE’s Geo-Institute.
“We hope we can do it again next year and keep the trophy here at the University of Delaware,” says graduate student Khabbazian, who served as team captain.
This release first appeared at UDaily, a publication of the University of Delaware.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Geo-Florida 2010 Event Report – March 2010
Leshchinsky Wins Prestigious Kapp Award – January 2010
