Virtual Conference 2021 Recap

Despite the pandemic challenges, our ASCE student chapter showed their resiliency at this year’s annual 2021 Southeastern Student Conference.

Historically, the student conference is regarded as our chapter’s biggest event of the year and typically requires about six months of planning and preparation. Although some components of the conference stayed the same, the entire event was hosted virtually by Vanderbilt University from Thursday, March 25th to Saturday, March 27th.

While there was a newfound lack of social camaraderie and shared experiences amongst our conference participants, the student chapter believes that the conference was still a positive experience for most and showed newer members a different side of the club.

For many of the newer members, this was their first exposure to the creative and challenging competitions often presented by the conference hosts. From designing a canoe out of concrete to building the most structurally-sound tower of canned foods, students got to see civil engineering principles applied in real time.

Amidst all of the Zoom conferences and socially distanced coordinating, our student chapter took home 5th place for the overall conference, winning against more than 20 schools across the Southeast. Additionally, our chapter had two 1st place titles: one for the Dueling Words Professional Paper regarding civil engineering’s ethical response to COVID-19, and another for Concrete Cornhole, which was won for both our technical paper and cornhole skills.

FAMU-FSU ASCE also placed 5th overall for the Concrete Canoe, and 4th for Can Rodeo, which collected over 300 canned goods that will be donated to a local Tallahassee food shelter.

Thank you to all of the faculty and industry professionals who continue to support our chapter during conference every year!

Chapter Update - Adapting to COVID-19

Our FAMU-FSU student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers-Florida Engineering Society includes some of our department’s most involved and high-achieving students. In the past several months, these students have also proven their ability to adapt and succeed among challenging new scenarios.

Beginning in March, as our ASCE chapter readied their camouflage concrete canoe and headed down to the University of Central Florida for the Southeast Student Conference, these students have had to acclimate to a whole new normal. Being a Civil Engineering major solely through Zoom lectures was something that most of our students hadn’t ever imagined or prepared for.

“Virtual classes made me realize what I love most about FAMU-FSU. I really missed the community in study groups and getting to work hands-on like when we poured the concrete cornhole board for conference,” Antoinette Velazquez, a senior and ASCE officer said. Despite the campus community being moved online, faculty and students alike were willing to make adjustments to ensure everyone had a successful end to the semester. “Dr. Tawfiq and Dr. Mtenga were willing to meet on Zoom for over an hour before their respective final exams to work through questions I had, which really solidified my understanding of the topics.”

As the spring semester came to a close, we celebrated the Class of 2020 as they entered into a world of unknowns. With summer approaching, other students began looking towards internships, summer classes, and research opportunities. Although there was a worry that these opportunities would be canceled, many companies led the charge with creative concepts to train the next class of civil engineers virtually.

Companies like Kimley-Horn and Turner Construction continued to be popular choices for our students this summer. Kimley-Horn hired three ASCE members as interns in addition to several other students from the CEE department at FAMU-FSU. Nicholas Jungers, a Kimley-Horn intern and ASCE President, said he was initially disappointed to hear that his internship was now remote but that he ultimately learned a lot.

“A remote internship allowed for a really unique opportunity to learn about the company in-depth and get exposure to some of the firm’s biggest projects, such as the new Las Vegas Raiders stadium.” Nicholas said.

While many students worked for private firms, opportunities with public agencies also provided a valuable internship experience. Yona Rubin, an ASCE member, worked with the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers on the Herbert Hoover dike dam rehabilitation around Lake Okeechobee. Research was another route some students chose to take in expanding their knowledge this summer. Bryan Coogan, a member of ASCE, spent the summer researching the Fenholloway River in Perry, FL as a NOAA Center for Coastal & Marine Ecosystems Scholar.

Despite the many unknowns that COVID-19 has brought, our students have managed to continue their pursuit in becoming the next generation of civil engineers, whether that’s through their classes, internships, or research opportunities. As the college enters new territory with mostly remote learning, we’re relying on our student organizations such as ASCE-FES to promote involvement in the young engineering community. For this past year, our FES student chapter was awarded an Honorable Mention for Most Active Student Chapter and one of their executive board members was awarded the Outstanding Service to a Student Chapter award. We’re excited to see how our innovative student leaders continue to adapt as they learn and grow as upcoming engineers.

Chapter Update - Welcome to Spring 2020!

Happy New Year from the FAMU-FSU student chapter! We are so excited for

the upcoming semester and are eager to start off the new semester strong. Spring semester is a very busy time for us as we spend most of it preparing for the ASCE Southeast Student Conference in March. Preparations have already begun and we can't wait to compete in Orlando this year!

As we move forward into the new year, we wanted to highlight some of our accomplishments from the end of last semester. It was certainly busy as we juggled promoting the club with our everyday schoolwork, however we accomplished a lot in a short period of time.

In October, our chapter organized a site visit to the City of Tallahassee

Weems Road Extension project to learn about the field and contractual

work of engineers in structural, transportation, and construction projects. Eleven of

our members had the opportunity to step on site and go on a walking tour

of the construction site. We were able to ask a great deal of questions and

appreciated the insight of the engineers who took the time to meet with us.

We were able to arrange a second site visit in October to learn

about other engineering applications occurring close to home in Innovation Park. The National High Magnetic Laboratory gave a private tour to six of our members. Magnetic

projects range in magnitude and application from local groups utilizing the mass

spectrometer to global groups traveling for a section of time to use the facilities. No engineers were harmed on this trip, however, it was confirmed that a frog was once levitated on the premises.

Up next in November, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering’s Green and Gold

Tailgate was a great success this year! We decorated a tailgating space in

competition against all the other student organizations and placed first for our

spirit! Members had a great time celebrating our joint university. This event also

served as an outreach opportunity to recruit new student members and showcase our accomplishments to faculty and alumni.

The FAMU-FSU ASCE-FES Annual Sporting Clays Fundraiser, started by one of our most famous past presidents, Garit Poire, is a great way for our members to network with professionals and for our chapter to raise money. This year we had 8 teams participating, and raised over $2000 dollars for our student chapter! We want to extend a big thank you to all of the Sponsors and participants for this event, it's because of you that we have such opportunities and success!

In a rare visit to a student campus, a presenter from Walt Disney Imagineering came to one of our meetings to give us an exclusive look into their secretive organization. We learned about the level of creative problem solving that goes into engineering rides and projects at Walt Disney World and got an even more exclusive look into the design of the Avatar landscape. We thank Paul Johnson, PE for making the drive all the way to our campus and giving our members such a glimpse of Disney magic.

The ASCE-FES-ITE Joint Holiday party was held at a local bar right before our winter break, and nearly all of our student board attended. It was a great networking opportunity and in the holiday spirit for this event we all donated toys to the Marine Toys for Tots charity organization, which donates toys to children of families in need who cannot afford gifts in the holiday season. We are happy we were able to help our respective parent chapters with this successful event.

We are excited to start the new year, and our resolutions this year as a chapter are

to start a new tradition for our chapter, continue to be involved in our community

and host more charitable/outreach events, and to have a great time at the SE Regional

Conference!