Beech Tree News Network

For the second year in a row, WKU civil engineers took first place overall at the Ohio Valley Student Conference.

WKU students finished first in balsa wood bridge building, second in environmental engineering, third in steel bridge and concrete canoe and fared well in other events -- concrete horseshoes, concrete softball bat, technical presentation, surveying and AutoCAD -- at the regional competition April 4-6 in Cleveland, Ohio.

The WKU steel bridge team qualified for the national competition May 31-June 1 in Seattle.

Forty-seven members of the WKU Civil Engineering program and four faculty members traveled to Cleveland for the ASCE Ohio Valley Student Conference. WKU finished ahead of 13 other schools – Akron, Carnegie Mellon, Cincinnati, Cincinnati State, Cleveland State, Dayton, Geneva, Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, Ohio, Pittsburgh and Youngstown State.
Concrete Canoe:
Seniors Aaron Dockery of Somerset (team captain) and Emily Mesker of Hiseville (assistant captain) led the Concrete Canoe team in the design, construction, presentation and paddling of Courageous. At 186 pounds, it is one of the lightest canoes WKU Engineering has ever made.

Team Courageous, inspired by a fellow civil engineering student battling cancer this year, included raising cancer awareness in their team goals. Decorated with quotes about living with cancer, the bright white hull also represented a fresh new hull design, emphasizing speed while maintaining just enough stability to keep the engineers inside the canoe during the energetic paddling events: endurance and sprint events for both men’s and women’s teams, plus a co-ed sprint event. The canoe team was judged on technical presentation, their cutaway model, and their display for the public. 

Professor Matthew Dettman, team advisor, said: “This year’s canoe took on a special meaning after Robby was diagnosed with cancer. Watching his courage through chemotherapy and radiation treatment and his teammates rallying around him this year has been very inspirational.”

The 2013 canoe team also includes Josh Amos of Bowling Green, Jacob Belwood of Somerset, Robert Boarman of Owensboro, Walker Bruns of Atlanta, Elizabeth Chang de las Cuervas of Hillview, Seth Dawson of Trenton, Ethan Epperson of Nancy, Chad Grubb of Morgantown, Chris Heil of Winchester, Eathan Johnson of Hawesville, Colby Osborne of Brentwood, Tenn., Ian Tisdale of Bowling Green, Aaron Daley of Louisville, Daniel Skees of Louisville, Kirk Thomas of Hopkinsville, Michael Simpson of Park City, Tyler Sheffield of Dry Ridge, Brett Rice of Lexington, Trevor King of Derby, Ind., Justin Jernigan of Portland, Tenn., Megan Jones of Glasgow, Elizabeth Cardwell of Russellville.  The engraving of Courageous was programmed and executed by senior WKU electrical engineering student Jonathan Marques of Prospect.

In the concrete canoe competition, WKU finished third overall behind Youngstown State University and the University of Akron. The team placed third in oral presentation, second in final product, and third on the technical report. In canoe races, WKU finished first in men’s sprint; second in women’s sprint; third in coed sprint; and third in men’s and women’s endurance.