Senior Year Stories by Stephanie

It has been almost two weeks since we left for the American Society of Civil Engineers' annual Pacific Southwest Regional Conference (or PSWRC, for short). Here's a rundown of how it went:

Wednesday, April 1:

We met at Kaprielian Hall (very appropriate meeting spot, it's the home of the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), got our team t-shirts, and headed to LAX. Since we were such a big group, the airline wanted to do an additional background check on us or something, so we ended up hanging out in the check in area for a while. To pass the time, a couple friends and I busted out some cards and played "BS" - good times. After checking in bags and getting through security, we hung out at the different restaurants in the terminal until it was time for our flight. Once aboard, I can't say much of what happened because I slept through most of it. Once we arrived in Hawaii, my hotel roommates and I got picked up by one of my alumni friends (to avoid paying for a taxi or shuttle) and made our way to the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani.

Thursday, April 2:

Luckily we were still on Pacific Time, because we had to wake up pretty early. We all met in the lobby and walked from the hotel to the University of Hawaii at Manoa - geographically, it isn't very far, but because of a canal that we had to cross, it was about 3 miles of walking. The environmental team took a taxi because they had to bring their equipment and get set up for their competition. The rest of us were tasked with unloading the concrete canoe and steel bridge supplies that we had mailed (yes, we mailed a concrete canoe across the Pacific Ocean) to Hawaii and setting it up for the aesthetic judging.

After the bridge and canoe displays were set up, I went exploring for some breakfast. Since I was in Hawaii, I decided that I wanted a loco moco and/or some spam. Quite conveniently, both of the cafeterias I found offered those options. I ordered a loco moco and also bought a spam musubi to go for later in the day. The next few hours were basically spent waiting for the judges to come around, so I walked around and explored the campus a bit more. The University of Hawaii students were on their spring break, so I mostly met other civil engineers that were also attending the conference.

UH fed us a teriyaki chicken bento box for lunch. My favorite part, though, was the different juices they had to choose from.

After lunch, there were canoe presentations, the impromptu design competition, and quiz bowl. The canoe presentations are when the captain(s) of each concrete canoe team explain their design and construction process and answer the questions asked by the judges. Impromptu is exactly as it's named - impromptu. The assignment is not announced prior to the competition. Traditionally, each team is given a set of supplies and is asked to build an object with a desired function. This year, the teams were given a plastic garbage bag, chopsticks, blank CDs, some cardboard, and a roll of tape and they were asked to build a wind-powered car that would travel a certain distance faster than any other team's car. USC won this event by a landslide, and it was pretty amazing.

The quiz bowl competition is a head-to-head question-based competition. I was assigned to this event, along with three fellow students. We won the first round against CSULA, but fell in the second round to the University of Hawaii. Because the questions included both civil engineering-related questions and "Hawaii in general" questions, they had a slight advantage over us. They ended up winning second place overall, so it wasn't so bad that we lost to them.

At around 3pm, we walked back to the hotel, changed, and walked across the street to the beach. I was surprised by how crowded it was on a Thursday at the beginning of April, but we were still able to claim a decent amount of space for ourselves.

After a few hours of sunbathing, we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. Since it's pretty difficult to seat 40 people together at a restaurant, we split up and found what we wanted. I was in a group of about 11 or 12, and we settled on Cheeseburger in Paradise because it had a fun vibe and an affordable price tag.

We sat a table shaped like a ukelele and enjoyed our food. After dinner, as we were paying the cashier, we bumped into a USC alum and chatted for a bit. It was random, but pretty cool.

Before going to up to bed, we stopped at one of the many "ABC Stores" to get water bottles for the next couple days. I also bought a keychain with my Hawaiian name as a souvenir.

Friday, April 3:

The Friday of PSWRC consists of the steel bridge competition and some sporting events. We had the first steel bridge construction slot, so we all got up early to support our team. Before we could compete, though, we had to get the bridge pieces from the shipping crate to the UH basketball stadium where construction took place.

Brief overview of the steel bridge competition: each team constructs a 20' long bridge of steel in sections of 3' or less. At the competition, the teams put the pieces together as quickly as they can, within the restraints given by the rules for that year. The rules will specify where you can or cannot stand, how many pieces you can carry at a time, and what can or cannot be placed on the ground. It gets really complicated as you get into the details, but usually it's for a good reason (safety or applicability to real life). After the bridges are fully constructed, they are lateral tested with 50 lbs to verify the "sideways strength" of the bridge before it is vertically loaded. Then, the lateral load is removed, and a pre-load of 100 lbs is placed on top of the bridge. This zeroes out the deflection so that teams are not penalized for the initial "settling" of the bridge. The deflection thereafter is a reflection of the bridge's strength, not whether they did the fabrication themselves or had it professionally done. An additional 2400 lbs (as in, two thousand, four hundred additional pounds) of weight are added, and the final deflection is recorded. The final score is based on some combination of aesthetics, construction time, deflection, construction "cost," and a couple other factors. "Cost" is based on the weight of the steel used, construction methods (using temporary piers or barges, for example), and any penalties for dropping bolts or tools in the "river."

Last year I was one of two co-captains of the steel bridge team, but I didn't have enough time to dedicate to the project this year. It was a little sad watching from the sidelines, but still fun to support my school.

After steel bridge, we went to get some breakfast (I had a sausage, spam, and rice combo) and then watch the volleyball competition. We lost in a close game to Arizona State University, but they went on to win second place overall -- seems to be a theme...

For lunch, we were given the same thing as the previous day, except with teriyaki beef instead of chicken. We had a little bit of free time after lunch, so a few of us went to lay in the grass and relax.

The last scheduled event of the day was "Concrete Ulu Maika" which is sort of similar to croquet except the ball is cylindrical instead of spherical and you roll it with your hands rather than hitting it with a mallot. We had to make the 'Ulu maika ahead of time and bring them with us to the competition. I liked that we cast ours in a mold that made the SC logo stand out.

A few of us had to leave before the event was over to transfer the concrete canoe from the shipping crate to a Penske truck that would take it to the lagoon the following day. We were sharing the truck with another university, so we had to make sure neither canoe would be damaged in transport.

Once we finished moving the canoe, we called a taxi to take us back to the hotel. It only ended up being $2-3 per person if we shared a van taxi, so it was worth it.

We went back to the beach, and decided to rent surfboards. I had never surfed before, but figured it would be cool that my first time could be in Hawaii. I got up a couple times, but I realized afterwards that I probably should have taken a lesson. I am actually considering taking a lesson or two here before and/or after graduation because it was really fun. Now I know to get a rash guard first because my skin got rubbed raw in just an hour and a half.

After surfing, my alumni friend Ashley was planning to take me out to dinner to catch up and celebrate my birthday (which was a week prior). We got drinks at Hard Rock Cafe and then went to Zippy's to grab some food.

Saturday, April 4:

Concrete canoe race day!

We got up really early to head to Ke'ehi Lagoon. The canoe teams had to pass their swamp tests and get ready for the races. The swamp test is when the canoes are filled full of water, but still have to float. I would guess that it is a safety precaution, but it always makes the teams nervous. Luckily, we passed.

The races consist of five sets of pre-races, three sets of petite finals, and three sets of grand finals. The pre-races are men's slalom, women's slalom, men's sprint, women's sprint, and co-ed sprint. Neither finals includes the slalom races. Because there are so many teams, the process takes a long time, so there is a lot of waiting around in between your school's races.

My friend Ashley came to watch the races and keep me company, which was fun and helped pass the time.

We ended up winning 6th place in the co-ed sprints, but didn't place in any others.

After the races, we had to put the canoe back in the shipping crate, get cleaned up, and drive to Sea Life Park for the conference banquet.

It was pretty cool - they did a dolphin show, presented the awards, and treated us to a full-on luau right on the ocean. It was absolutely gorgeous, and a great way to close out the trip. Check out the photos:

Sunday, April 5:

Another early morning - we had to get up, get packed, and get to our 8am flight. Because of the time difference, we basically lost the whole day. I didn't end up back in my room until 6pm, but luckily I don't have class until 5pm on Mondays. =)