New Orleans is a complex city with an even more complex history, known equally for music, food, and Mardi Gras as it is for inequality, crime, and its role in this country’s sordid past of chattel slavery. Less well known about the Crescent City is that, because of its location and elevation (or lack thereof), it has been the birthplace of some significant advancements in structural and concrete engineering.
It is this, then, that made it the perfect setting for the American Concrete Institute’s (ACI) Mortar Workability Competition this past spring, and the ideal place for UHD’s ACI student chapter to test their skills against some of the world’s brightest structural engineering students. A team of eight Gators attended, with most being new members to the chapter. Despite their inexperience, the team placed ninth out of all participating schools and placed second out of schools within Texas.
Ghayda Kassar, ACI Student Chapter President, said that the group’s performance, while not perfect, was encouraging. “We had limited time and materials, but we did the best we could,” she said. “Right after the competition I was disappointed. Thinking about it now, though, I’m happy with how we performed.”
And she should be, as the UHD chapter faced financial hardships that other groups did not. For example, some groups represented concrete companies and benefited from immense resources they could allocate toward testing materials. Despite this and other challenges, UHD beat many such teams.
For the uninitiated (this writer is firmly in that group), ACI’s Mortar Workability
Competition tests both both theoretical knowledge and practical application and requires
participants to focus not just on workability (how well a cement mix flows), but also
on real-world concerns like sustainability, stability, and specified material requirements.
Just like a working concrete professional would do, in other words.
Beyond the technical aspects of the competition, Kassar said she and the team gained valuable insights into the industry and the potential career paths they each might pursue. For his part, Dr. Arash Rahmatian, Associate Professor of Structural Engineering, said the UHD ACI chapter embodies “the spirit of excellence that defines the UHD student body. Their dedication and ability to turn adversity into a steppingstone for growth are inspiring.”
To learn more about the UHD ACI chapter, reach out to Ghayda Kassar or visit the UHD Scholars Academy.