Four construction management students, Nick Fischer, Andrew Lagasca, Chad Rogers, and Justin Keyt, participated in the Fiber Reinforced Plastic Composite Student Competition at the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Conference in Detroit, Michigan on March 25-27, 2017.
“The Fiber Reinforced Plastic Composite Student Competition was strictly over concrete design and construction so having the right mix for the application, which in this case was a small beam, was rather challenging. Having to find the right mix to use allowed me to gain a huge understanding of all the different materials that can be used and how they react and form together. Knowing this allowed the team to come up with the design that could meet all of the given specifications which in turn relates directly to contract specifications that would normally appear for a construction project. The competition itself has a tremendous amount of networking opportunities both with professionals and with other schools’ professors and students that we competed against. ACI was not what I was expecting in that I thought it to be a construction-concentrated event. Overall, it was a tremendous experience that I would highly recommend for every construction management student. We did better than we expected for Illinois State University’s first team and know that next year’s team could place in the top three for the given structure type.” – Nick Fischer, senior construction management student
ACI’s nationally-recognized student competitions, offered in cooperation with the ACI Student Activities Committee, give students the opportunity to participate in interesting and educational concrete projects.
“Our student team performed very well at the ACI student competition in Detroit, MI. We were placed at 9th position out of total 33 teams at the national/international level. There were 10 foreign teams from countries such as Canada, Mexico and Brazil. All top-three teams were from foreign countries. Auburn University was placed at 11th, Valparaiso University was placed at 18th and Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville was placed at 28th position”. – Pranshoo Solanki, Faculty Advisor
