ASCE SESC Concrete Cylinder Report

FIU Engineering Students Win First Place

March 27, 2008 - Students from the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University (FIU) won first place in The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Southeastern Regional Conference Championship in the Concrete Cylinders Competition. The ASCE’s annual South Eastern Regional Student Championship was held in Orlando, Florida. Student members from the entire south-eastern United States representing twenty-six universities participated in this event. The conference consisted of competitions that are civil engineering oriented; where students apply knowledge they have received in class to approach open-ended problems. The College of Engineering and Computing participated with a fifty-member team.

One of the competitions, the Concrete Cylinder Competition, consisted of designing a concrete mix that would crush at a specific compressive strength. The score was based on the closest crushing strength to the specified target, while having the shortest casting duration. This year’s designated target was 3000 psi.

FIU had a two-person team for this competition, Alejandro Motta (Captain) and Daniel Battan, who opted for a regular concrete mix without any admixtures, and a 0.38 water-cement ratio with a casting time of 24hrs. Their scheduled crushing time was set for 7:40a.m., at which time they had achieved a concrete strength of 2985 psi, only 15psi from the 3000 target value. This amazingly close crushing strength gave them the first place in the competition out of the 23 universities that competed.

FIU is very proud of Alejandro and Daniel and would like to congratulate them and the FIU ASCE Chapter for their achievement.