American Society of Civil Engineers
The University of Texas at Arlington
Student Chapter
"Provide essential value to our members and partners, advance civil engineering, and serve the public good." - asce.org
PICTURES
Our Team
Dr. Nelson Gomez-Torres
Faculty Advisor
nrgomez@uta.edu
Maile Dennehy
President
mld3047@mavs.uta.edu
Ruben Castillo
Vice President
rac6865@mavs.uta.edu
Andrea Lopez
Secretary
axl0055@mavs.uta.edu
Malaz Bob
Historian
mxb5597@mavs.uta.edu
Reneesh Parappuratha
Treasurer
reneesh.parappurathu@mavs.uta.edu
Jacob Mendoza
Social Officer
jacob.mendoza@mavs.uta.edu
Saul Rodriguez
Social Officer
sxr6015@mavs.uta.edu
Anahi Salgado
Fundraising Chair
axs3412@mavs.uta.edu
Trent Fantini
Civil Media Officer
taf7187@mavs.uta.edu
Madison Moreno
Volunteer Chair
mxm5494@mavs.uta.edu
Damaris Serrano Lopez
Ambassador
dxs5195@mavs.uta.edu
Jesus Roldan
Ambassador
jesus.roldan@mavs.uta.edu
Karissa Wilson
Officer Advisor
karissa.lopez@mavs.uta.edu
Ailyn Gutierrez
Concrete Canoe Project Manager
arg0109@mavs.uta.edu
Bryant Soltero
Concrete Canoe Captain
bryant.soltero@mavs.uta.edu
Keyla Salas
Concrete Canoe Captain
keyla.salas@mavs.uta.edu
Sammuel Martinez
Concrete Canoe Captain
sammuel.martinez@mavs.uta.edu
Aryan Padaniya
Steel Bridge Project Manager
aryan.padaniya@mavs.uta.edu
Siar Paiman
Steel Bridge Captain
ahmad.paiman@mavs.uta.edu
Ezekiel Oluwemimo
Steel Bridge Captain
eoo4807@mavs.uta.edu
Lesly Palacios
Steel Bridge Captain
lap9082@mavs.uta.edu
Networking
ASCE serves as a job hotline linking the students with industry. Internships can be found through connections stemming from ASCE involvement.
Conferences and Workshops
Conferences and workshops provide a rewarding experience in networking, learning new things about civil engineering, and new skill sets that you don’t learn in the classroom. Our student chapter attends the Workshop for Student Chapter Leaders (WSCL) every year. This conference provides an opportunity to network with students and professionals from Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
Branch Meetings
Want to meet with professionals face to face? The Fort-Worth and Dallas branches of ASCE host monthly meetings where over 40 professionals network, eat lunch, and listen to a keynote speaker. If interested, our chapter provides business cards and carpooling for students to attend.
General Body Meetings
Confused about what direction to take within Civil Engineering? Speakers from industry visit monthly to speak at our general body meetings to speak about their particular field of interest. We host these meetings on the first Wednesday of every month during the fall and spring semesters.
Socials
You can get to know your classmates outside of the classroom, make friends, share in your trials and tribulations, and enjoy ASCE activities with one another. We provide various opportunities to get our members socially involved.
Campus Involvement
There are various events on campus where members can compete with other student organizations, faculties, and professionals. Our student chapter gets involved with the university’s intramural sport events like bed races, volleyball competitions, and etc. As well as engineering events to bring all of our fields together.
Annual Cookout
Every Fall semester, we host a cookout to familiarize our members, officers, faculties, alumni, and professionals with each other. This event provides everyone with an opportunity to relax and have fun at the start of school. During this event, we have canoeing practice as well where the community can see our team row on the lake.
Member Meetings
It's a meeting where our members get the opportunity to have a fun rewarding experience of meeting new people and working on interactive activities together.
Volunteering
We serve our community through our volunteering program where we help those in need and provide our members with the opportunity to make a difference.
Tarrant Area Food Bank
Tarrant Area Food Bank's mission is to empower communities to eliminate hunger by providing food, education, and resources through innovation and collaboration. Our student chapter does a food drive collecting food to donate.
Habitat for Humanity
They are an organization with sole purpose of making communities around the United States better places to live. Some typical work involves building or renovating a home for low income families while creating a healthy and sustainable community. Our local organization is Trinity Habitat for Humanity located in Fort Worth.
Trinity River Trash Bash
The Trinity River Trash Bash is an event to put on by the Tarrant Regional Water District that unites the community to pick up trash that has accumulated in the Trinity River.
Concrete Canoe
Concrete canoe is a national competition sponsored by ASCE that challenges students to design, fabricate, and race canoes made out of concrete. The competition exists at the conference and national levels. The teams that win each of their respective conferences will go on to compete at the national level.
Design
First, we design our canoe according to ASCE specifications and rules. When designing, we consider real world scenarios and factors such as:
• Buoyancy or flotation of canoe
• Strength and viability of concrete mix
• Hull stability, speed, and strength
• Time, efficiency, and material availability
Fabrication
After designing, we fabricate our canoe. We first prepare the mold, then place concrete on the mold, and finally apply stains on canoe. We also create a display according to the chosen theme.
Competition
The competition components each worth 25% of overall score are described below:
• Design Paper - covers various areas related to design and construction of concrete canoe
• Oral Presentation - five-minute technical presentation highlighting canoe project followed by seven-minute question and answer period
• Final Product - canoe’s overall aesthetic appeal, display, and viability
• Races - five races consists of women’s endurance and sprint, men’s endurance and sprint, and co-ed sprint
Why Join Our Team?
• Reinforcement of concepts from classes
• Networking opportunities
• Teamwork and technical skills
• Hands on project experience
Requirements to Join
• Must be a student at UTA
• Completed safety training provided by safety officer before joining the team
• Must be a student chapter and national member to participate in the competition
Steel Bridge
Steel bridge is a national competition sponsored by ASCE that challenges students to design, fabricate, and build bridges made out of steel. Competition exists at the conference and national levels. The teams that win each of their respective conferences will go on to compete at the national level and compete for scholarships and recognition.
Design
First, we design our bridge according to ASCE specifications and rules. When designing, we consider real world scenarios and factors such as:
Structural integrity of bridge
Ability to withstand loads
Time, efficiency, and material availability
Fabrication
Fabrication of our bridge is underway once design is complete. To fabricate the bridge, we cut, bend, drill, and weld steel together.
Competition
The competition components each evaluated differently are described below:
Construction - bridge is built with a team of 3-6 workers under a time constraint
Economy - efficiency, time, and number of workers to build the bridge are considered for best economic practice
Load Tests - use of lateral and vertical load tests to test for structural integrity of bridge
Lightness – total weight of bridge
Why Join Our Team?
Reinforcement of concepts from classes
Networking opportunities
Teamwork and technical skills
Hands on project experience
Requirements to Join
Must be a student at UTA
Completed safety training provided by safety officer before fabrication phase
Must be a student chapter and national member to participate in competition
