The canoe team at the ready (L-R): Elizabeth Kreher, Erik Vik, Abby Fleck, Nathan Fangmeier, Katie Schaefers, Laeken Stugelmeyer, Peter Baudhuin, Harvey Fitzgerald, Ben Wolf and Mackenzie Kenny.
The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) finished fourth out of 14 schools at the 2012 ASCE Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, held March 29-31, 2012 at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, WY.
The conference involved a number of competitions, including the steel bridge and concrete canoe. In addition to the overall fourth-place finish, there were several great team and individual performances.
The steel bridge team finished in fifth place overall. The steel bridge competition requires students to design, fabricate, and construct a steel bridge that is evaluated based on efficiency, measured by weight and stiffness, economy, and construction speed. The 23-ft bridge was constructed in 9.10 minutes and weighed in at less than 150 lbs, making the SDSM&T bridge the second fastest and lightest bridge at the competition. Unfortunately the steel bridge buckled during the loading test, and will not go forward to the national competition. Team members included Kody Heller, Tony Kulesa, and Chris Timm (captains), Kevin Barry, Kyle Carey, Nick Claggett, Benjamin Deboer, Michael Dollarhide, Kirk Ehlke, Shy Gus, Alex Huddleston, Elizabeth Kreher, Tim Lowman, Austin Norberg, Jesse Parker, Brian Ruppelt, Zachary Weishaar, and Ben Wolf.
The concrete canoe team placed third in finished product and fifth overall. The concrete canoe competition requires students to design and construct a concrete canoe that is judged on a design paper and presentation, appearance and conformance to specified dimensions, and speed in various races. Participants included Karen and Katie Schaefers (captains), Peter Baudhuin, Nathan Fangmeier, Harvey Fitzgerald, Abby Fleck, Mackenzie Kenny, Elizabeth Kreher, Laeken Stugelmeyer, Erik Vik, and Ben Wolf.
The pre-design team placed fifth overall. In this year's pre-design competition, students were required to design a turbine to raise a 2-lb weight 8 ft in 16 seconds. Participants included Sachith Karunaratna and Mohamed Hakeem.
There were also two paper competitions. Stephen Kilber received second place for his non-technical paper and presentation on engineering ethics. Austin Norberg received fifth place with his technical paper presentation, which was written by Spencer Ferguson, who missed the competition to attend inaugural events in Aberdeen SD in his new role as the SDSM&T student senate president.
Kevin Barry, Benjamin Deboer, and Alex Huddleston participated in the mystery design. The objective of this activity was to have students from various teams work together to design a water filter with a given set of materials.
In addition, the School of Mines ASCE student chapter took third place in the Can-struction competition. In this event, competing teams showcase their talents by building giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. At the close of the conference, all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and elderly and day care centers. The SDSM&T students collected approximately 1,800 cans.
The concrete canoe and steel bridge teams are part of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Production (CAMP), a student-centered, hands-on engineering program. A key part of the CAMP experience involves designing, building, testing, and competing in a variety of engineering challenges. The program actively combines the classroom experience where students apply their developing technical skills in real-world situations that involve fundraising, planning, deadlines, and international competitions where the teams test their mettle against universities from around the world.
SDSM&T students participating in the competition were: Kevin Barry, Peter Baudhuin, Kyle Carey, Nick Claggett, Benjamin Deboer, Michael Dollarhide, Kirk Ehlke, Nathan Fangmeier, Harvey Fitzgerald, Abby Fleck, Shy Gus, Mohamed Hakeem, Kody Heller, Alex Huddleston, Sachith Karunaratna, Mackenzie Kenny, Stephen Kilber, Elizabeth Kreher, Tony Kulesa, Tim Lowman, Austin Norberg, Jesse Parker, Brian Ruppelt, Karen, Schaefers, Katie Schaefers, Laeken Stugelmeyer, Chris Timm, Erik Vik, Zachary Weishaar, and Ben Wolf.
