Trine civil engineers win awards at Indiana-Kentucky Symposium

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Twenty-one Trine University civil engineering majors and three faculty took part in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Indiana-Kentucky Symposium, with three Trine teams earning awards in competitions.

The event took place April 13-15 at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The Trine team of Ryan Hoak of Warsaw, Indiana, and Annalise O’Daniel of Indianapolis placed first in the Mystery Design competition.

The contest, which is not revealed until competition starts, required competitors to use an excavator bucket to place an attached ball on increasingly more difficult targets.

Grant Winterkorn of Goshen, Ohio, Ben Stoffel of Andrews, Indiana, and Erin Haase of Napoleon, Ohio, took second place in the concrete canoe competition, assisted by rowers Mason Fritch of Butler, Indiana, Lia Vawter of Indianapolis and Sophie Sloneker of Monroe, Ohio.

The ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition allows students to test skills in concrete mix designs and project management by building and racing a canoe made out of concrete.

Trine’s Sustainable Solutions team, made up of Haase, Hallie Fenimore of Rushville, Indiana, Makenna Sheets of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Etseighena Alieme of Franklin, New Jersey, placed third.

The Sustainable Solutions competition challenges students to incorporate sustainable solutions into everyday problems. In this year’s competition, students were tasked with revitalizing one downtown block of a fictional city to create a community gathering place and a cohesive, walkable corridor.

“Last year, Trine hosted the ASCE symposium, so this year it was great for the students to just compete without the stress of planning and managing the event,” said TJ Murphy, faculty advisor for the Trine ASCE chapter. “The second-place finish in the concrete canoe competition was the highest finish for Trine in my 15 years as advisor. We are all proud of our students and how well they represent the Reiners Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.”

In addition to Murphy, civil engineering faculty Tim Tyler, Ph.D., and Gary Greene, Ph.D., accompanied the students on the trip.

Other students attending were Bill Kennelly of Chardon, Ohio, Austin Zank of Nashville, Michigan, Aspen Fisher of Ossian, Indiana, John Nash of Channahon, Illinois, Gage Ornduff of Elkhart, Indiana, Evan Holman of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Reece Soel of Avon, Indiana, Aaron Loos of Franklin, Indiana, Chris Parker of Lebanon, Indiana, and Austin Farley of Centerville, Indiana.