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UMD ACI Takes First at the Fall 2011 ACI Competition On October 14th-18th 2011, eight UMD Civil Engineering students traveled to Cincinnati, OH to complete in the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Pervious Concrete Cylinder Competition at the ACI fall convention. Twice a year ACI holds an international conference for the concrete industry. Faculty, students, practitioners, suppliers, and many others attend the conference that includes workshops, committee meetings, sessions, and student competitions. ACI is the code writing body for the national Concrete Building Code and has a membership of over 14,000 people worldwide. UMD had another successful competition by bringing home two top ten finishes. Thirty-four teams competed at this year’s fall convention from all across North America. Teams were challenged to apply sustainability
concepts and to use their knowledge of concrete mix design techniques by producing pervious concrete that balances permeability and splitting tensile strength. Team one placed ninth in the performance prize category while team two placed first in the load-to-cost prize category. Team members included: Matt Fournier, Dan Abramson, Chelsea Hanson, Kyrstyn Haapala, Justin Baker, Phil Koktan, Kyle Berg, Ben Thiesse and Andrew Venaas. Faculty Advisors were Eric Musselman and Eshan Dave. The UMD ACI Student Chapter would also like to thank all of those organizations that helped make this trip a reality. Without their support we wouldn’t have been able to attend the convention. The sponsors were: Minnesota Concrete Council, Boldt Builds, American Engineering Testing, Cemstone, Twin
Ports Testing, Concrete Paving Association of Minnesota and Arrowhead Concrete. The ACI Student Chapter is looking forward to competing in the ACI Concrete Bowling Ball Student Competition in Dallas, Texas next March. If you are interested in sponsoring or participating in this competition please contact ACI Student Chapter President Matt Fournier at four0044@d.umn.edu.
Top Picture: Cylinder One going through the indirect tensile test. Bottom Picture: Cylinder being tested for permeability
From L-R: Kyrstyn Haapala, Dan Abramson, Ben Thiesse, Kyle Berg, Andrew Venaas, Matt Fournier, Phil Koktan, and Justin Baker