2010 Winners Announced!

PCI Announces 2010 Engineering Design Awards (Big Beam Contest)
The Student Education Judging Committee has 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 winners and associated PCI Producer Members are as follows:

OVERALL (NATIONAL) CHAMPIONSHIP 

First Place:

University of South Florida, team 1, Tampa, Fla. (Zone 6)
Faculty Advisor: Rajan Sen
Student Team: Rick Cole, Justin Duncan, Frank Holz, Joe Paleveda, Jonida Pone, and Christopher Snee
PCI Producer:  Standard Concrete Products Inc., Tampa, Fla. (John Robertson)
Award: $2000 and other prizes

Second Place:

Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore. (Zone 1)
Faculty Advisor: Keith Kaufman
Student Team: Jill Folkestad, Gabriel Hoxmeier, Jared Trowbridge, Kenichi Nagao, and Benjamin Maue
PCI Producer: Knife River Corp., Harrisburg, Ore. (Keith Kaufman)
Award: $1750 and other prizes 

Third Place:

Norwich University, Northfield, Vt. (Zone 5)
Faculty Advisor: Edwin Schmeckpeper
Student Team: Daniel Gosselin, Nicola Suren, Tim Boncek, Zach Stanton, Kevin Gallagher, and Seth Knihtila
PCI Producer: JP Carrara & Sons Inc., Middlebury, Vt. (Benjamin Cota)
Award: $1500 and other prizes 

Fourth Place:

University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, Neb. (Zone 3)
Faculty Advisor: George Morcous
Student Team: Halami Afshin, Henin Eliya, Toenies Nathanael, El Touny Sanaa, and Lakmon Kpandji
PCI Producer: Concrete Industries Inc., Lincoln, Neb. (Rob Pearce)
Award: $1000 and other prizes 

Fifth Place:

Red River College, Winnipeg, MB, Canada (Zone 7)
Faculty Advisor: Robin Hutchinson
Student Team: Tony Poirier, Matt Mendes, and Kent Petersen
PCI Producer: Con-Force Structures, Winnipeg, MB, Canada (Walter Meadus)
Award: $1000 and other prizes 

Sixth Place:

University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. (Zone 4)
Faculty Advisor: Yahya Kurama
Student Team: Andrew O’Donnell, Dustin Mix, Matt Hopke, Chelsea Dietrick, and Brittani Russell
PCI Producer: Strescore Inc., South Bend, Ind. (John Reihl)
Award: $1000 and other prizes 

Seventh Place:

University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. (Zone 2)
Faculty Advisor: Thomas Kang
Student Team: Joe Howell, Woosuk Kim, Jenny Bergen, and Joseph Tuttle
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (OKLA) Inc., Oklahoma City, Okla. (Michael F. Daly)
Award: $1000 and other prizes 

ZONE WINNERS

Zone 1 Second Place:

San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.
Faculty Advisor: Daniel Merrick
Student Team: Aaron Nam, Alex Jpuregui, Francisco Galan, and Bryce Lloyd
PCI Producer: Walters, Wolf Precast (Doug Frost)
Award: $750 

Zone 2 Second Place (tie):

University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student Team: Travis Lowe, Chris Clement, Eleanor Reynolds, Nikhil Inamdar, Priyanka Shirsat, Sivaramakrishnan Balaji, James Clayshulte, and Michelle Wilkinson
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $750

University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student Team: Jenna Halpern, David Grapsas, Ezra Hilton, Luca Magenes, Jorrit Vandenberg, Ethan Cotton, Juan Rodriguez, Dave Collins, and Chase Anderson
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $750

University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student Team: James Kleineck, Chris Williams, Alex Garde, Brenden Adams, Dave Garber, Eisake Nakamara, Kerry Kreitman, and Phillip Pesek
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $750 

Zone 2 Fifth Place:

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Faculty Advisor: Fernando Fonseca
Student Team: Andrew Dutson, Ammon Heier, Ryan Eastman, and Michael Embley
PCI Producer: EnCon Utah LLC (Charles Leidholot) 

Zone 3 Second Place (tie):

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, S.Dak.
Faculty Advisor: M. R. Hansen
Student Team: Victoria Borchard, James Kliwer, Brandon Fried, Matt Deardoff, S. K. Awal, and Ikhbayar Khurelbaatar
PCI Producer: Gage Brothers (Chris Baer)
Award: $750

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.
Faculty Advisor: Bob Lyon
Student Team: P. J. Karasek, Austin Jackson, Daniel Nagati, and Clara Weber
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (Bruno Burgess)
Award: $750 

Zone 3 Third Place:

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, S.Dak.
Faculty Advisor: M. R. Hansen
Student Team: Ben Sampice, Brent Morford, Rachal Sharma, and Kiehore Mechani
PCI Producer: Gage Brothers (Chris Baer)
Award: $500 

Zone 3 Fifth Place:

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.
Faculty Advisor: Bob Lyon
Student Team: Marcus Carrillo, Andy Coffman, John Weeks, and Miles Whetsel
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (Bruno Burgess) 

Zone 3 Sixth Place:

University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.
Faculty Advisor: Ganesh Thiagarajan
Student Team: Sheetal V. Ajgaonkar, Anirudha K. Vasudivan, Matt Bendorf, Rasekh Rahimtodah, and Anmar Chapuk
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (Michael Eilers)

Zone 4 Second Place:

Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va.
Faculty Advisor: Wael Zatar
Student Team: Billy Varney, Shaun Long, Tom Rogers, Viet Cao, Hien Pham, and Jay Baisden
PCI Producer: Carr Concrete (Burr Stanley)
Award: $750 

Zone 4 Third Place:

West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.
Faculty Advisor: Hung-Lian Roger-Chen
Student Team: Kane Gyovai, Gregory Michaelson, and Manish Roy
PCI Producer: Sidley Precast (Robert Narchus)
Award: $500 

Zone 5 Second Place:

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. 
Faculty Advisor: Clay Naito
Student Team: Mark Beacraft, Ying-Cheng Lin, and Joseph States
PCI Producer: Northeast Prestressed Products (Michael Ridge)
Award: $750 

Zone 5 Third Place:

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.
Faculty Advisor: Clay Naito
Student Team: Tim Brauning and Cass Schanck
PCI Producer: Northeast Prestressed Products (Michael Ridge)
Award: $500 

Zone 5 Fourth Place:

Tufts University, Medford, Mass.
Faculty Advisor: Brian Brenner
Student Team: Paul Rosenstrauchm, Michael Sidebottom, and Christopher Follen
PCI Producer: Oldcastle Precast-Rotondo Precast (Bill Evans) 

Zone 5 Fifth Place:

West Point, West Point, N.Y.
Faculty Advisor: Eric Crispino
Student Team: Razvan Cojocaru, Mark Garrison, and Ross Hartmann
PCI Producer: Oldcastle Building Systems (David Wan)

Zone 5 Sixth Place:

Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y.
Faculty Advisor: Levon Minnetyan
Student Team: Quinn Carnavan, Jake D’Achille, B. Kelsey, Steve Brindale, J. Griffin, and Ryan Hogan
PCI Producer: Jefferson Concrete (Mark Losee) 

Zone 5 Seventh Place:

University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Faculty Advisor: Sergio Brena
Student Team: David Fortin, Meghan Krupka, and Mahyar Mahdavi
PCI Producer: Unistress Corp. (Beth Mitchell/Yong Shin) 

Zone 6 Second Place:

University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Fla.
Faculty Advisor: Adel ElSafty
Student Team: Matthew K. Graeff, Alex Lazowick, Steven Stuart, and Robert Bennett
PCI Producer: Gate Precast Concrete (Glen Switzer/Tom Newton)
Award: $750 

Zone 6 Third Place:

University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.
Faculty Advisor: Rajan Sen
Student Team: Christopher Blair, Whitney Bloome, Jonathan Gill, David Grindley, and Nicole Pauley
PCI Producer: Standard Concrete Products (John Robertson)
Award: $500 

Zone 6 Fourth Place:

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
Faculty Advisor: Rudolf Seracino
Student Team: Brad McCoy, Kurtis Kennedy, Matt Heiser, Adolfo Obregon-Salinas, Erik Latta, Sami Syed, Zhao Chen, and Ahmad Ighwair
PCI Producer: Metromont Corp. (Spring McEwen) 

Zone 7 Second Place:

Fanshawe College, London, ON, Canada
Faculty Advisor: Solomon Asantey
Student Team: Benjamin Cowey, Shane Bruinsma, Andrew Okolisan, Jonathan Lampman, and Ed Jolliffe
PCI Producer: Prestressed Systems Inc. (Nebojsa Mladenovic)
Award: $750 

OUTSTANDING REPORT WINNER

University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. (Zone 4)
Faculty Advisor: Yahya Kurama
Student Team: Andrew O’Donnell, Dustin Mix, Matt Hopke, Chelsea Dietrick, and Brittani Russell
PCI Producer: StresCore Inc., South Bend (John Reihl)
Award: $250 

OUTSTANDING VIDEO WINNER

University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Advisor: Oguzhan Bayrak
Student Team: James Kleineck, Chris Williams, Alex Garde, Brenden Adams, Dave Garber, Eisake Nakamara, Kerry Kreitman, and Phillip Pesek
PCI Producer: Coreslab Structures (TEXAS) Inc. (Bill Daughty)
Award: $250

 

The Big Beam Contest is organized by PCI's Student Education Committee and sponsored by Sika Corp. 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.

For additional information on this program, contact PCI’s education director, Alex Morales, at (312) 360-3219 or via email.