Students test engineering skills, make university history
Office of Public Relations & Communications |
The Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering concrete canoe team placed first in competition for the first time in school history.
A delegation of 21 civil engineering students from the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering had an opportunity to put their skills to the test at the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Mid-South Student Symposium March 31-April 2 at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
The American Society of Civil Engineers, the country’s oldest engineering society, hosts various student symposiums around the world each year. Lipscomb’s student chapter was assigned to the mid-south region where it competed alongside other colleges and universities from Tennessee and Arkansas. This year Lipscomb engineering students competed in four categories: Concrete Canoe, Professional Paper, Steel Bridge and the Mystery Event.
The Concrete Canoe Team made university history as it finished first place overall for the first time. The concrete canoe competition comprises multiple facets including design & casting of a concrete canoe, full design report, a presentation, and racing. The canoe is judged on aesthetics and the ability to pass a floatation test for safety before multiple women’s, men’s and co-ed races are held.
In addition to finishing first overall, Lipscomb finished well in the individual races. Complete race standings were as follows:
- Women’s Slalom – second place
- Men’s Slalom – first place
- Women’s Sprint – third place
- Men’s Sprint – second place
The Concrete Canoe Team included the following team members & roles:
- Natalia Hoeppner, project manager, mix design captain, construction, project presenter, paddling team, and aesthetics team
- Mathias White, construction team captain
- Joseph Spillers, mix design co-captain, construction team
- Anna Davidson, aesthetics captain, construction team, paddling team, project manager understudy
- Gretchen Link, paddling captain, construction team
- Josh Forsythe, hull design captain, project presenter, construction team, paddling team
- Gracie Hall, paddling team
- Alyssa Hampton, team coordinator
- Liz Sass, aesthetics, paddling team
- Cole Scott, paddling team
- Chase Goodwin, paddling team
- Dylan Maynard, paddling team, construction team
- Jackson Stephens, paddling team, construction team, hull design understudy
- Joey Laporte, construction team
In the Professional Paper Competition, senior Natalia Hoeppner took top honors, another first for Lipscomb University. Hoeppner’s paper, “The Transformation of the ASCE Code of Ethics,” was judged on writing and presentation.
The Steel Bridge Team also achieved significant milestones. The team completed construction in 34 minutes, setting a school record. Although the bridge was ultimately disqualified for excessive vertical deflection under loading, lateral deflection was 14% of allowable.
The Steel Bridge Team included the following team member’s and roles:
- Jack Finch, project manager
- Aaron Hardy, assistant project manager, construction team, fabrication team
- Lauren Baker, construction team, fabrication team
- Hawrra Kareem, aesthetics captain, construction team
- Rawan Alrubaye, construction captain, aesthetics
- Koryn Harms, construction team
- Leslie Mendez, design, construction team, Fabrication team
- Carson Wood, design team
- Payson True, design team, shop drawings
- Juan Vazquez, design captain, shop drawings
Lipscomb also placed second in the Mystery Event. This year’s mystery event was a scavenger hunt to find pieces of a mystery item and put it together the fastest. The mystery Item ended up being a metal sign of the competing school’s mascot.
"This year's teams not only worked hard themselves but they really leveraged the hard work of previous teams," said Todd Lynn, associate professor and chair of Lipscomb's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "This was especially important this year since we didn't build a canoe last year and since we had only 1 student that had actually ever experienced a full conference. I'm very proud of all of our students, their hard work, their successes and the way that they conducted themselves at the conference."
Lipscomb University’s Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering provides students the opportunity to prepare for an engineering career in an educational environment that also encourages Christian character. The college offers ABET-accredited undergraduate degrees in civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering.
A major focus of Lipscomb’s engineering program is challenging its students and alumni to use their engineering education to help others and for the betterment of society. Through the college’s Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities, the engineering college has sponsored numerous volunteer mission teams providing opportunities for students to carry out ministry support, disaster relief and community development around the world.
Learn more about the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering
— Photos: Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering