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Four students in Lafayette’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will visit Easton High School next week to introduce a national on-line civil engineering bridge-building contest.
Civil engineering and environmental majors Erin O’Brien ’02 (Carlisle, Pa.), Crystalann Harbold ’02 (York, Pa.), Theresa Kearney ’04 (Pearl River, N.Y.), and Nate Tyson ’05 (Easton, Pa.) will interact with the students Wednesday, Oct. 31. Tyson is project coordinator for the ASCE chapter.
The computer software to be used by contest participants will be loaded onto all computers at Easton High. The Lafayette contingent will visit the school in pairs to explain the computer program and answer questions about using it. O’Brien and Harbold will be at the school from 7:40-10 a.m., followed by Tyson and Kearney from noon until the end of the school day.
“The Lafayette students have already had classes on how to perform many of the things that the program does,” says Arthur Kney, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, who serves as the ASCE group’s advisor along with David Brandes, also assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “This gives them a chance to exercise their expertise in the area of building bridges and take it down to the level of high school students and get the kids excited. It’s a neat way to get students who have had training involved with telling other people about this.”
The West Point Bicentennial Engineering Design Contest is spearheaded by the ASCE and U.S. Military Academy as part of next year’s observance of the 150th anniversary of ASCE and 200th anniversary of West Point. It will measure the cost effectiveness of a simple bridge design problem formally developed and submitted on the Internet.
The prizes are scholarships of $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000, as well as a notebook computer.