CEE's Steel Bridge and Environmental teams placed first in their respective divisions at the 2010 Mid-Pacific Regional Conference at California State University, Chico on April 8-10. Sarah Klug placed first in the Mead Paper Competition with her paper, "Sustainable Development Within the Code of Ethics." Steel Bridge will advance to its National Competition at Purdue University, Indiana, in late May, and Environmental will advance to Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona, in June.
Steel Bridge
For the first time, CEE's Steel Bridge team earned a first place in the category of aesthetics. This was joined by firsts in stiffness and efficiency.
CEE's 2010 Steel Bridge Team and their entry, BEARicade
Environmental
The Environmental team, as pictured in the photo at the top of the article, came in first overall after being judged in the categories of 1) design, 2) amount of water recovered, 3) speed and efficiency of the system, 4) water quality, 5) presentation, 6) design report, and 7) safety.
Mead Paper Competition
Sarah Klug, graduating senior and Chi Epsilon member, won first place in the 2010 Daniel W. Mead Student Contest on the topic, "Ethics and the Civil Engineer of 2025."
Each school participating in MidPac needs to submit a paper for the Mead Contest. Sarah volunteered to write the paper for Berkeley because she wanted the experience of writing a paper that was not a technical report, and of presenting in front of people who were not her peers.
Canoe
CEE's Concrete Canoe team suffered a heartbreaking mishap when its entry, Ex CALce Liberatus, broke in half during the first race, the women's slalom. The team experimented with a "green" polymer that showed promise, however further testing is necessary before it can be used in a concrete canoe or other practical applications.
After their initial dismay wore off, team members accepted the offer of a practice canoe from University of Nevada, Reno, and rallied to paddle in the other races. Although the Canoe team has to forfeit further competitions this year, the students and faculty advisors are already participating in an animated analysis of what went wrong and how to use the setback to win in future years. Their conclusion: "Canoe will rise again in 2011."
CEE's 2010 Concrete Canoe Team with the experimental Ex CALce Liberatus
Congratulations to everyone for your well-deserved wins, and for showing true Berkeley spirit when challenged.