Title: Third National ASCE Geo-Institute Paper MSE Wall Competition
- GeoCongress 2008, New Orleans -
By: David J. Elton

Eleven university teams competed in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-Institute student GeoCompetition at the New Orleans-hosted GeoCongress conference, March 2008. The Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers took top honors, beating two-time reigning champion University of Missouri – Columbia. The Drexel University GeoDragons took second place honors.

As winners, the LSU team took home the prestigious Atterberg Cup, which was awarded by Dr. Robert Gilbert at the Heroes Luncheon. Dr. Gilbert praised the teams, the advisors and the corporate sponsors for creating an exciting and useful competition.

Dr. Robert Gilbert headed the student competition committe. He's seen here with the winning LSU team and their advisor, Dr. Khalid Alshibli.

The competition promoted geotechnical engineering and fostered teamwork in an engineering design. Students prepared design papers and plans in advance, from which eleven teams were invited to GeoCongress 2008 to compete. The teams were funded from corporate sponsors, the Geo-Institute and their home universities. At GeoCongress 2008 they competed head to head to build a model reinforced-soil (MSE, or mechanically stabilized earth) retaining wall inside a plywood box, using sand as backfill, poster-paper as the wall facing, and paper strips as soil reinforcement. The design goals are to satisfy MSE wall construction standards in a timely fashion and sustain a 23kg. (50 lbs) surcharge while minimizing the amount of paper reinforcement. Points were awarded for the paper, the design, the speed of construction and the wall performance. Details concerning rules for competition and judging can be found here.

Dr. Robert Gilbert, of the University of Texas – Austin, headed the Geo Institute student competition committee consisting of Mary Roth, Dave Elton, Barbara Luke, Andrew Heydinger, Frank Townsend. Trish Culligan, and Nazli Yesiller.

A reception was held the evening before the event. Students from all teams met each other and the sponsors over light refreshments.

The Geo-Institute promotes the MSE wall competition at regional ASCE student competitions and helps fund the national competitions. The last competition was in Denver, Colorado at the ASCE Geo-Institute GeoDenver conference.

Corporate sponsors for the New Orleans event were: Burns Cooley Dennis, Colbond, Fugro Consultants, Geosyntec, Golder Associates, Jean Louis and Janet Briaud, North American Geosynthetics Society, Rockwood Retaining Walls, Tensar International Corporation, and URS Corporation.

FIRST PLACE
Louisiana State University Tigers

Teams built MSE-style structures with plywood, sand, poster paper and paper strips. They also supplied design papers to support their approaches.

Advisor
Khalid Alshibli

LSU Students
Alsidqi Hasan, team captain
Rick Nugent
Carrie Heffron
Mark Korinek

SECOND PLACE
Drexel University GeoDragons

Despite the curious placement of a Bucknell sign in the background--Conspiracy?--this is actually the runner-up "GeoDragons" of Drexel University. Their advisor Dr. Grace Hsuan stands with them.

Advisor
Grace Hsuan

Dr. Grace Hsuan is the North American Geosynthetics Society's (NAGS) Immediate Past President, and Dr. David J. Elton is the current President of NAGS.

Drexel Students
Theresa Andrejack, team captain
James Gardner
Michael Henrick
Erica Leeds

The next GeoCompetition will be held at the 2009 GeoCongress in Orlando, FL.

Additional pictures from the GeoCompetition are available here.

Dr. David J. Elton, P.E., is an associate professor of civil engineering at Auburn University and president of the North American Geosynthetics Society (NAGS). He may be contacted by email.