A team of students from the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University recently placed fifth nationally in the annual student American Society of Civil Engineering’s Geo-Institute GeoChallenge.
The competition requires students to use engineering principles to build a model stable earthen structure. The Texas A&M team was one of only 20 teams chosen to compete nationally in the finals in late February in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Geo-Congress 2020.
Members of the GeoWall team began work in November 2019 to design the mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall using paper reinforcement taped to a poster board wall facing.
The engineering students submitted their design report and were selected to compete in the national finals.
Kumar said the team had several strategies going into the competition, including building their wall multiple times, working through minor mistakes and being positive.
"We were fully prepared and very excited for the final competition," Kumar said. "It was our great honor to represent Aggies at the national finals competition, and we feel proud."
This year's team included Kumar, undergraduate students Jessica Escobedo and Bridget Le, and doctoral student Muhammad Ali Falak. Drs. Anand Puppala and Marcelo Sanchez served as faculty advisors for the team and worked closely with them in the event.
Kumar said in addition to the competition, students were able to meet students from other universities, attend lectures by experts and broaden their professional networks and connections.
"This is a great opportunity for students to attend a world-class professional engineering conference," he said, encouraging other students to get involved with GeoWall. "It's a golden opportunity to represent Texas A&M at a national level."
The Texas A&M Chapter of the Geo-Institute provided funding for the team to compete at this year's Geo-Challenge.
"Geo-Institute Chapter offers a wide range of other opportunities aimed at improving professional and personal attributes for students," Falak said, who serves as the Vice President for the Texas A&M chapter. "Students and former students who are part of this chapter have proven themselves to be leaders, team players, and outstanding geotechnical professionals. We expect a lot more students in the future to be part of our student organization."
The Texas A&M Geo-Institute Student Chapter acknowledges the support from the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to attend this competition. Yue Chen serves as the current president of the Geo-Institute Student Chapter, which is supervised by Dr. Sanchez.