Steel Bridge Competition
OSU Captain Kileigh Shea runs a lateral brace to the construction site. [Photo by Hannah Gustin]
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) put together a Pacific Northwest Student Conference the weekend of April 25-27 at Oregon State University. Events included a concrete canoe competition, a technical paper competition, and an engineering knowledge competition, among others.

McAlexander Fieldhouse was filled with excitement on the final day of the conference as 17 schools from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, and Montana participated in the steel bridge competition. Each team practices and then brings their skills to see who can build the lightest bridge in the least amount of time. After the bridge is complete, 2,500 pounds of weight is put on it. The bridge that fares best under the massive weight is considered the better model. University of Alaska Fairbanks came in first place while Oregon State took fourth place. The contest is a great opportunity for some friendly competition, networking, and a little showing off between civil engineers from different universities.

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Over spring break, six students from the Oregon State chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) swapped rest and relaxation for networking and professional development at the 39th annual NSBE convention in Indianapolis. Under the leadership of OSU NSBE President and Industrial Engineering senior, Nathan Okorley, the chapter set out to increase Oregon State’s profile at NSBE through service on regional executive board and professional development. Continue reading

By Jason Evans

Emily and Jarvis Caffrey are partners in more ways than one. The husband and wife duo are also research colleagues at Oregon State University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics (NERHP) and recent ARCS scholars — Emily for her master’s thesis measuring radiation doses in marine organisms, and Jarvis for his work aboard one of the only research vessels allowed inside the containment area of the Fukushima crisis, where he took radiation measurements with equipment developed at NERHP.

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By Casey L. Mills

Elizabeth Houser, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State, was named a Rising Star in Nuclear Science & Engineering by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Elizabeth Houser
Elizabeth Houser, Ph.D. candidate in radiation health physics, collects snails near Chalk River National Laboratory in Ontario, Canada.

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It used to be that students wanting to work off campus from their personal computer and take advantage of specialized software for a project were out of luck. This is no longer the case for engineering students using Citrix XenApp. Using their own devise (computer, tablet, even smart phone) students can now access the applications they would normally find in engineering computer labs.

The software program allows engineering students to work on projects from the comfort of their own home, or anywhere that has wifi for that matter. It eliminates the need for long hours in computer labs and decreases unnecessary time on campus.

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