YSU students prepare to compete

The students are ready for this weekend's competition in Pittsburgh.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Engineering students at Youngstown State University previewed their entries for the 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers Regional Conference.
YSU students will compete in three events: concrete canoe, steel bridge building and surveying. The contest will take place Thursday through Sunday at the University of Pittsburgh.
The exhibition took place Monday in the basement of Moser Hall on campus. The backdrop of huge steel machinery made it an appropriate setting to demonstrate industrial craft projects.
The bridge builders presented first. In this competition, students must build a miniature steel bridge while judges watch. YSU's bridge is slightly over 25 feet long and about knee high. Once completed, judges run the bridge through a gauntlet that tests stiffness, economy, aesthetics, lightness, structural efficiency and speed.
A group of students and a stack of girders stood at each end of the hallway. In the middle was 25 feet of taped-off area representing the river. As soon as the timekeeper's watch clicked, they immediately broke into a chaotic flurry of activity.
Pairs of students carrying diamond-shaped steel beams dashed to the tape lines while others set up struts and screwed in bolts. Steel wire criss-crossed along the structure to provide support.
As quickly as they started, they stopped again. Total time: three minutes six seconds. A good time, but they need more practice to stay competitive at the national level.
The engineering students also proved that even concrete can float.
Not only does the canoe have to float while full of people, it has to float while completely full of water. One of the tests demonstrated Monday was a complete submersion of the canoe.
Getting ready
The students began preparing for the regional conference early last summer. Since then, it has been a nonstop rush to find techniques that will take them to nationals in the summer.
"They were working over winter break, spring break and weekends," said Dr. Cynthia Hirtzel, dean of the Rayen College of Engineering & amp; Technology. "They put a lot of hours into this."
At regionals last year, the Ohio State University craft buckled and the University of Dayton's broke in half. "The students had to swim to shore," Hirtzel said. YSU's canoe, on the other hand, floated them all the way to nationals.
Floating a concrete boat full of water is difficult enough, but YSU students also have to fight financial difficulties as well.
They received some fund-raising help from the university and alumni.
"[Private schools] have so much more money to throw at the projects," Hirtzel said. YSU students "might have half the money of other schools."