2008 Winners Announced!

PCI Announces 2008 Engineering Design Awards (Big Beam Contest)
At their meeting at PCI on August 1, 2008, the Student Education Judging Committee selected the Engineering Student Design Award (Big Beam Contest) winners. First place winners from each of the six PCI Zones, along with the International entries considered as Zone 7, competed for the Overall Championship. The Overall winners, Zonal winners, Outstanding Report Winners, Innovative Design Winners, along with the associated PCI and CPCI Producers, are listed as follows:

OVERALL (NATIONAL) CHAMPIONSHIP

First Place:

United States Military Academy (Team #1), West Point, New York (Zone 5)
Faculty Advisor: Fred Meyer
Student Team: Bailey Harrington, Aurimas Metrikis and Ross Dula
PCI Producer: Oldcastle Precast Building Systems, South Bethlehem, New York (Rita Seraderian)
Award: $2000 along with other prizes
(To be honored at the PCI Convention in Orlando, Florida)

Second Place:

Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon (Zone 1)
Faculty Advisor: Keith Kaufman
Student Team: Christopher Terrell, Nicholas Colson, Travis Kinney and Jacob Ervin
PCI Producer: Knife River Corporation, Harrisburg, Oregon (Loren Later/Pat Hynes)
Award: $1750 along with other prizes

Third Place:

University of South Florida (Team #1), Tampa, Florida (Zone 6)
Faculty Advisor: Rajan Sen
Student Team: Marcia Alvarado, Muntaha Abu-Hijleh, Margareth Dugarte, Gouzel Iplaeva and Rene Jacir
PCI Producer: Standard Concrete Products, Inc., Tampa, Florida (Joseph Lord)
Award: $1500 along with other prizes

Fourth Place:

University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois (Zone 4)
Faculty Advisor: Dan Kuchma
Student Team: Mark Denavit, Thomas Janicke, Josh Steelman and Sara Walsh
PCI Producer: Prestress Engineering Corp., Blackstone, Illinois (Marty McIntyre)
Award: $1250 along with other prizes

Fifth Place:

Missouri University of Science & Technology, Rolla, Missouri (Zone 3)
Faculty Advisor: John Myers
Student Team: Jared Brewe, Dave Holdener, Wendy Moore and Yosuke Tanizawa
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (MISSOURI), Inc., Marshall, Missouri (Jim Myers)
Award: $1000 along with other prizes

Sixth Place:

University of Western Ontario (Team #2), London, Ont., Canada (Zone 7)
Faculty Advisor: Maged Youssef
Student Team: Ismaeel Babur, Louis Orta, Mohamed El Semelawy and Shahria Alam
CPCI Producer: Prestressed Systems, Inc., Windsor, Ontario, Canada (Nebojsa Mladenovic)
Award: $1000 along with other prizes

Seventh Place:

Metropolitan State College, Denver, Colorado (Zone 2)
Faculty Advisor: Susan Balogh
Student Team: Jeremy Lorberau and Colin Van Kampen
PCI Producer: EnCon Colorado, Denver, Colorado (Jim Fabinski)
Award: $1000 along with other prizes

ZONAL WINNERS

Zone 1 Second Place:

California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, California
Faculty Advisor: James Mwangi
Student Team: William Toy, Jeremy Mosst and Leon Taing
PCI Producer: Mid-State Precast, L.P., Corcoran, California (Doug Mooradian)
Award: $750 along with other prizes

Zone 3 Second Place:

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska (Team #3)
Faculty Advisor: George Morcous
Student Team: Catherine Armwood, Chad Zimmerman, Christie Hasenkamp, Faten Fawzy and Xiaoyue Song
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (OMAHA), Inc., Omaha, Nebraska (Andy Flanagan)
Award: $750 along with other prizes

Zone 3 Third Place:

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: George Morcous
Student Team: Steve Arens, Marc Maguire, Quinton Patzlaff, Alec Stubbe and Marta Wolinska
PCI Producer: Concrete Industries, Inc., Lincoln, Nebraska (Mark Lafferty)
Award: $500 along with other prizes

Zone 3 Fourth Place:

Co-Winner #1: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Faculty Advisor: Sri Sritharan
Student Team: Mark Giesmann, Jeremy May, Aaron Shelman and Tom Vande Voort
PCI Producer: IPC Inc Subsidiary of the Cretex Companies, Inc., Iowa Falls, Iowa (Jeff Butler) Award: $150 along with other prizes

Co-Winner #2: University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska (Team #1)
Faculty Advisor: George Morcous
Student Team: Cameron Collingsworth, Brett Nickeson, Lance Allen, Brian Hoagland and Kyle Fitch
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (OMAHA), Inc., Omaha, Nebraska (Brian Peterson)
Award: $150 along with other prizes

Zone 4 Second Place:

Co-Winner #1: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
Faculty Advisor: Yahya (Gino) Kurama
Student Team: Robert Delgadillo, Adam Gacioch, Brendan Ryan and Kevin Walsh
PCI Producer: Stresscore, Inc., South Bend, Indiana (Phil Wiedemann)
Award: $625 along with other prizes

Co-Winner #2: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Team #1)
Faculty Advisor: Jian Zhao
Student Team: Jarod Ballard, Aquilino Dael, Roberto Delgado, Casey McKay and Nathan Hunn
PCI Producer: Spancrete Industries, Inc., Waukesha, Wisconsin (Vern Coenen)
Award: $625 along with other prizes

Zone 4 Fourth Place:

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Team #3)
Faculty Advisor: Jian Zhao
Student Team: Ryan English, Jacob Luetzow, Derek Peterson and Ningning Wang
PCI Producer: Spancrete Industries, Inc., Waukesha, Wisconsin (Vern Coenen)
Award: $250 along with other prizes

Zone 5 Second Place:

United States Military Academy, West Point, NY (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: Fred Meyer
Student Team: Steven Lanz, Michael Merseburg and Krystal Sherwood
PCI Producer: Oldcastle Precast Building Systems, South Bethlehem, New York (Rita Seraderian)
Award: $750 along with other prizes

Zone 5 Third Place:

Co-Winner #1: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: Clay Naito
Student Team: Linda Kaplan, Justin Lockman and Josh MacCallister
Precast Producer: High Concrete Group, Denver, Pennsylvania (Monica Schultes/Ken Baur)
Award: $375 along with other prizes

Co-Winner #2: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Faculty Advisor: Carin Roberts-Wollmann and Thomas Cousins
Student Team: Nicholas Comforter, Stephanie Koch and Mathew Swenty
Precast Producer: The Shockey Precast Group, Fredericksburg, Virginia (Monica Schultes)
Award: $375 along with other prizes

Zone 6 Second Place:

University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: Rajan Sen
Student Team: Evan Birk, Geoffrey Chambers, Jonathan Collins, Edward Francis, David Furry and Purvik Patel
PCI Producer: Standard Concrete Products, Inc., Tampa, Florida (Joseph Lord)
Award: $750 along with other prizes

Zone 6 Third Place:

George Institute of Technology, Atlanta, George (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: Lawrence Kahn
Student Team: Aragaw Akalu, Julian Diaz Ospina, Yoseph Gebramariam, Marta Gomez and David Ramirez
PCI Producer: ConArt, Inc., Cobb, Georgia (Peter Finsen)
Award: $500 along with other prizes

Zone 6 Fourth Place:

Florida International University, Miami, Florida
Faculty Advisor: Nakin Suksawang
Student Team: Daniel Battan, Brandon Mimtzi, Alejandro Motta and Marcial Ugaz
Precast Producer: Structural Prestressed Industries, Inc., Miami, Florida
Award: $250 along with other prizes

Zone 7 Second Place:

Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Faculty Advisor: Pascal Champagne
Student Team: Scott Burden, Mark Nelson, Kevin Worley and Jason Yamaoka
CPCI Producer: Pre-Con Inc., Brampton, Ontario, Canada (Amir Fam)
Award: $750 along with other prizes

Zone 7 Third Place:

Red River College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: Robin Hutchinson
Student Team: Matt Friesen, Stephen Jupin and Brian Mehmel
CPCI Producer: Con-Force Structures Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Walter Meadus)
Award: $500 along with other prizes

Zone 7 Fourth Place:

Red River College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Team #1)
Faculty Advisor: Robin Hutchinson
Student Team: Elaine McDougall, Murray Kowerko, Cory Pelletier and Matt Awang
CPCI Producer: Lafarge Canada, Inc., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Ifan Lim)
Award: $200 along with other prizes

OUTSTANDING REPORT WINNERS

1. Best Report:

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia (Team #3)
Faculty Advisor: Carin Roberts-Wollmann and Thomas Cousins
Student Team: Nicholas Comforter, Stephanie Koch and Mathew Swenty
PCI Producer: The Shockey Precast Group, Fredericksburg, Virginia (Monica Schultes)
Award: $1,000 along with other prizes

2. Honorable Mention #1:

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Team #1)
Faculty Advisor: Clay Naito
Student Team: Daniel Cook, Cliff Jones and Chris Trautner
PCI Producer: High Concrete Group, Denver, Pennsylvania (Ken Baur/Monica Schultes)
Award: $500 along with other prizes

3. Honorable Mention #2:

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, George (Team #2)
Faculty Advisor: Lawrence Kahn
Student Team: Aragaw Akalu, Julian Diaz Ospina, Yoseph Gebramariam, Marta Gomez and David Ramirez
PCI Producer: ConArt, Inc., Cobb, Georgia (Peter Finsen)
Award: $500 along with other prizes

INNOVATIVE DESIGN CONTEST WINNER

University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida (Team #3)
Faculty Advisory: Rajan Sen
Student Team: Vladimir Simonovski, Lori Elkins, Julio Aguilar, Hida Bagheri and Ashley Quaid
PCI Producer: Standard Concrete Products Inc., Tampa, Florida (Joseph Lord)
Award: $1000 along with other prizes

The Big Beam Contest is organized by PCI's Student Education Committee (Pat Hynes, Chair) and sponsored by Sika Corporation. The objective is for teams of students to fabricate and test a precast, prestressed concrete beam with the help of local precast concrete producer members. Prizes are awarded for the most efficient design, highest load capacity, best report, and other categories.

Applications for the 2009 Big Beam Contest are due at PCI by March 16, 2009, and test reports by June 15, 2009.

For additional information on this program, contact PCI Research and Development Director Paul Johal at (312) 360-3213 or email: Paul johal.