The Jackson State University student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers successfully made its presence known in the 2013 ASCE Deep South Regional Student Conference held in Baton Rouge, La., from March 21 through March 23.
This conference features the annual concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions, as well as other competitions related to the civil engineering discipline. About 350 civil engineering students, practitioners and faculty of 12 universities from Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas participated in this year’s conference.
The year’s team used their canoe, “Sweetness,” named in honor of Walter Payton, to capture five awards in different categories including third place overall in the four-part competition. This included a design paper, an oral presentation, overall aesthetics and races to measure canoe performance. This is the third year in a row that JSU has won several awards in the competition.
The concrete canoe competition is the most difficult of the competitions held at the annual conference because the use of concrete to make a canoe is unusual and challenging. The idea is to successfully construct an 18-22 foot long canoe with a structural mix that has a unit weight less than water and is able to float and safely carry four people.
The JSU canoe team consists of 14 student members. Samuel Rhoads and Chris Herron of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department directed the project as they secured second place for their presentation skills.
In the men’s sprint event, Jonathan Atkins and Ennis Crosby competed and finished in third place. In the women’s sprint event, Kameron Boggan and Christine Edwards finished second. Samuel Rhoads, Jonathan Atkins, Naomia Briggety, and Christine Edwards also finished second in the co-ed sprint event.
Overall, “Sweetness” secured third place. This is the first time that JSU has placed in this category. Other student members including Ammanuiel Kebede, James Fairly, Ennis Crosby, Chris Herron, Ashlee Ingram, Alesha Jackson, Ibrahim Hinds and Michael Gray-Lewis worked on the actual design and construction.
The ASCE student chapter at JSU is currently advised by Dr. Himangshu S. Das, assistant professor of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.