This team of UCLA engineering students must not only work together to build a concrete canoe, but they must also train and exercise together to be able to out-row their competitors.

BY CHRISTOPHER SUTTON
UCLA Today

Crisscrossing the country, several dozen students from UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science are going all out to prove themselves by putting their designs for concrete canoes, remote-controlled airplanes, off-road vehicles and steel bridges to the test at several competitions this spring.

These annual contests, sponsored by professional societies and companies from the engineering industry, challenge students to go beyond textbook theories to design, build and test real vehicles and structures. For young engineers eager to make an impression on corporate sponsors and recruiters, the competition is intense and the rewards tangible.

“I’ve gained research opportunities and internships every summer since I became involved,” said Greg Glenn, a senior mechanical engineering student and president of UCLA’s chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Last summer, Glenn interned at Race Technologies and this summer he plans to work at General Motors.

In May, Glenn and fellow SAE members will travel to Brigham Young University, where teams from more than 100 colleges will meet for the Mini-Baja regional competition. Each team wrestled with the same challenge: Using a 10-horsepower Briggs & Stratton Intek Model 20 engine, spend one year designing an off-road vehicle that can tame Utah’s rugged terrain. Contestants are judged on car design, safety features, promotional plan and budget. The vehicles will face all-important road trials in maneuverability, acceleration, hill climbing and endurance.

While seven students will travel to Utah, 25 people from engineering, as well as from biology, English and other disciplines, make up the team. “Most of our members are engineering students, but we try to get any auto enthusiasts involved,” said Glenn.

Students often find that by working on a design project, they gain valuable skills that top recruiters are seeking — creativity, teamwork and communication skills, among others.

“In a nutshell,” said Ali Monshizadeh, a senior civil engineering student and chair of the steel bridge project sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE), “it prepares you for future projects. You learn things you just can’t in class. You implement plans, raise money and do what it takes to push a project forward.”

Monshizadeh’s team took on students from schools in four western states April 3-5 at the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference at Arizona State University. Their challenge: Replace a century-old bridge spanning an environmentally sensitive river for a rural community whose economy depends on that bridge.

“Our bridge had to be 23-25 feet long,” said Monshizadeh. “The challenge was to build it in 3.5-foot-long pieces — and we couldn’t step into the river as we built it.”

Taking on such tasks requires a major commitment of time and energy. Members of the ASCE concrete canoe team, which also competed at the April conference, met at a Marina del Rey dock every weekend for 10 months to practice rowing and exercised together at a gym since their competition involved not only design but an actual canoe race.

“The time commitment was worth it,” said Alex Nazarchuk, civil engineering student and project leader. “The team placed third in regional competition, and I gained firsthand engineering experience.”

Almost a dozen design concepts were on exhibit on campus during Engineers Week April 14-18.