ASCE Ski Trip at Big Bear Lake.
Over the extended Martin Luther King Kr. Day weekend, 44 of our members traveled to Big Bear Lake for our annual ski trip. We rented a large cabin where everybody got to spend time together and bond. About a third of the attendees went skiing and snowboarding on the first day of the trip, while everyone else went sledding, built snowmen, and relaxed in the cabin. The next day, we spent most of the time indoors, but when we found a lost dog, we went on a mini adventure to it back to a nearby animal shelter. It was an extraordinarily fun weekend in the snow!
Students talking to company representatives at the career fair.
Since then, we have been pretty busy. This past week, we hosted our Winter 2016 Career Fair in UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom, where there were 24 companies in attendance. As opposed to our Fall 2015 Career Fair, most of these companies were design firms and were recruiting for full-time, part-time, and internship opportunities. It had geotechnical, hydrology, environmental, transportation, and construction management firms. We think that this wide variety of firms provided many great opportunities for the diverse membership that ASCE encompasses!
Besides the career fair, we have been preparing for Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC), which will be in Long Beach, California from March 31st to April 2nd. Six of our nine projects will compete: Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, GeoWall, Environmental Design, Surveying, and Concrete Bowling. Together, we will be competing against around 18 universities in our region. The project leaders and their respective teams have been working fiercely this quarter to bring their designs to life by fabricating, testing, and refining the multiple components of their competitions.
Besides the career fair, we have been preparing for Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC), which will be in Long Beach, California from March 31st to April 2nd. Six of our nine projects will compete: Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, GeoWall, Environmental Design, Surveying, and Concrete Bowling. Together, we will be competing against around 18 universities in our region. The project leaders and their respective teams have been working fiercely this quarter to bring their designs to life by fabricating, testing, and refining the multiple components of their competitions.
ASCE student members casting the canoe.
Also, at PSWC, ASCE at UCLA will be partnering with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) UCLA Student Chapter to take on the Transportation Project, a highway design project of the I-405 and I-710 interchange near the location of CSULB. Competitors are expected to design the highway including horizontal and vertical alignment, design speed, striping, signage, pavement specifications, earthwork, environmental impacts, and a cost estimate. All these design aspects will be put into a final report for submission and on a poster for presentation.
In addition to the projects, several components of PSWC add to the overall competition score such as sporting events, a technical paper, and engineering games such as an impromptu event and Jeopardy. The technical paper and presentation competition, the Daniel Mead Paper, will consist of the ethical topic of evaluating design codes, standards, and practices on a local and global scale. Additionally, a community service project at this year's PSWC is a coin drive with proceeds going to Share our Strength's No Kid Hungry organization.
Our early sign-up deadline for PSWC just passed and we already have 91 students in attendance. This is our largest attendance in years, and we are all super excited for this mega-event!
In addition to the projects, several components of PSWC add to the overall competition score such as sporting events, a technical paper, and engineering games such as an impromptu event and Jeopardy. The technical paper and presentation competition, the Daniel Mead Paper, will consist of the ethical topic of evaluating design codes, standards, and practices on a local and global scale. Additionally, a community service project at this year's PSWC is a coin drive with proceeds going to Share our Strength's No Kid Hungry organization.
Our early sign-up deadline for PSWC just passed and we already have 91 students in attendance. This is our largest attendance in years, and we are all super excited for this mega-event!
2015 ASC Regions 6&7 Competition in Sparks, Nevada.
PSWC is not the only upcoming competition! In fact, just next week, ASC 67 will be participating in the Heavy Civil, Mixed Use, and Design Build categories of the construction management competition in Sparks, Nevada. The competition consists of a 16-hour period of preparing a mock pre-construction bid, followed by a day of presentations. Members will also have the opportunity to network with industry professionals at multiple networking nights as well as a large career fair on the final day of the conference. The three UCLA teams have been preparing for this competition with multiple practice problems, team meetings and workshops with industry coaches, and practice presentations in front of ASCE members.
2015 Seismic Design Competition in Boston, Massachusetts.
Following PSWC, our Seismic Design team will compete in the annual Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition in San Francisco, California from April 5th to April 8th. Each year, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Student Leadership Council hosts universities from around the world for the Seismic Design Competition. This project entails the design, construction, testing, and analysis of a model skyscraper subjected to two historic earthquake ground motions as well as a fabricated earthquake ground motion. After submitting a design proposal, the Seismic Design Team qualified for this year's competition. 33 distinguished universities will bring their structures to be judged on several categories such as efficiency, presentation, architecture, and structural response to the three competition ground motions.
The Seismic Design Team has been working tirelessly to refine its design and to practice its fabrication skills throughout the fall and early winter quarter. Currently, the team is in the process of finishing its second prototype so that testing results may provide calibration for the analytical model before creating the competition structure. After achieving first place nationally and second place internationally at last year's competition, this year's team hopes to reclaim its title as the international champion!
While projects will remain our main focus for this quarter, there will always be ongoing social activities, professional development events, and field trips! Our Mock Interviews event will be on February 10th, and we have invited alumni and professionals from LA YMF to conduct mock interviews for students who want to prepare for actual interviews. We will also host an alumni BBQ event in the following week and a few more info sessions after that. All of this will be further discussed at Monday's General Meeting, so we hope to see you all there!
The Seismic Design Team has been working tirelessly to refine its design and to practice its fabrication skills throughout the fall and early winter quarter. Currently, the team is in the process of finishing its second prototype so that testing results may provide calibration for the analytical model before creating the competition structure. After achieving first place nationally and second place internationally at last year's competition, this year's team hopes to reclaim its title as the international champion!
While projects will remain our main focus for this quarter, there will always be ongoing social activities, professional development events, and field trips! Our Mock Interviews event will be on February 10th, and we have invited alumni and professionals from LA YMF to conduct mock interviews for students who want to prepare for actual interviews. We will also host an alumni BBQ event in the following week and a few more info sessions after that. All of this will be further discussed at Monday's General Meeting, so we hope to see you all there!