Monthly Archives: April 2014

Concrete Canoe, PSWC

PSWC 2014 Day 2: Concrete Canoe Races

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The main event of PSWC Day 2 is the Concrete Canoe Race Competition. All 16 schools with functional canoes compete in 5 events:

  • Men’s Endurance/Slalom (time-based)
  • Women’s Endurance/Slalom
  • Men’s Sprints (Heats, Small & Big Finals)
  • Women’s Sprints
  • Co-ed Double-sprints (4-person)

Our canoe successfully made it through all of the races, and looked great in the process!

  • Early morning at the site of the canoe races. We arrived around 6:30am.
  • Unloading the canoe for the races.
  • Bringing the canoe to our spot on the beach.
  • Preparing to set the canoe down on its beach stands.
  • DiSCovery II waits to get into the water.
  • Our President and VP handle the canoe’s gunwale caps.
  • Canoe team, getting ready for the swamp test.
  • Carrying DiSCovery II into the water for the first time.
  • DiSCovery II floats!
  • We have to completely submerge our canoe, then prove that it floats back to the surface, to pass the swamp test.
  • Filling the canoe with water.
  • Our cheering squad watches from the beach, hoping our canoe floats.
  • Filling the canoe with water.
  • Time to push DiSCovery II completely underwater.
  • Release the canoe, and don’t touch it, while the judges watch.
  • DiSCovery II passes the swamp test!
  • Bailing the water back out of DiSCovery II.
  • Bringing DiSCovery II back onto the beach while we wait for the races to begin.
  • Attaching gunwale caps to the edges of the canoe, to protect them while paddling.
  • Loading the canoe for the Men’s Endurance race.
  • Sending DiSCovery II off for her first race.
  • Men’s endurance.
  • Lining up for the men’s endurance race.
  • The rest of the team prepares to cheer our paddlers on from the beach.
  • Waiting for the men’s endurance race to begin.
  • Men’s endurance.
  • Men’s endurance.
  • Coming in from the men’s endurance race.
  • One race down, 4 to go!
  • Waiting for the other schools to race.
  • Watching our women’s endurance team head out.
  • Women’s endurance.
  • Co-ed sprints.
  • Waiting for the women’s endurance team to line up.
  • Digging in for a turn. The endurance slalom races challenge teams with a series of tight turns around buoys.
  • Women’s endurance.
  • Women’s endurance.
  • Women’s endurance.
  • Women’s endurance.
  • Women’s endurance heading in.
  • Men’s sprints lining up.
  • Men’s sprints heading in after finishing 2nd in the heat.
  • Men’s sprints coming in after winning the small final (by only a second)!
  • Relaxing on the beach between races.
  • Small-final-winning men’s sprints team after their last race.
  • Women’s sprints team practicing.
  • Women’s sprints team heading out.
  • Women’s sprints.
  • Cheering for the women’s sprints team.
  • Women’s sprints lining up.
  • Women’s sprints.
  • Women’s sprints.
  • Women’s sprints.
  • Judges’ scoreboard after all the heats, with lane assignments for the finals.
  • Co-ed sprints team heads out.
  • Concrete canoe team members race their canoe at PSWC 2014.
    Co-ed sprints.
  • Co-ed sprints.
  • Co-ed sprints.
  • Co-ed sprints team comes in after winning their heat!
  • 2014 Concrete Canoe Paddling Team.
  • 2014 Concrete Canoe Team.
  • 2014 USC ASCE PSWC Team.
  • Time to bring the canoe back home.
  • We don’t really need this many people to help carry it, but everyone wants to help!
  • Carrying the canoe back from the beach.
  • Loading DiSCovery II back into the trailer.

Concrete Canoe, PSWC, Steel Bridge

PSWC 2014 Day 1: Canoe & Bridge Aesthetics

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PSWC 2014 Started off with a beautiful day of Concrete Canoes and Steel Bridges on display!

  • Early-morning assembly at the hotel.
  • Full trailer waiting to be unloaded.
  • We’re here!
  • Waiting to unload the trailer.
  • The team prepares to lift the canoe out of its cradle.
  • Carrying the canoe out of the trailer.
  • Bringing the canoe onto campus.
  • Bringing the canoe to our display area.
  • Carrying the canoe to our display.
  • Setting the canoe down on temporary stands.
  • USC engineers ready for a busy day.
  • Carrying a canoe stand to our display area…
  • It’s WALL-E!
  • Wheeling a several-hundred-pound rock to our display area to hold the canoe.
  • Placing the canoe stands.
  • Preparing to flip the canoe over.
  • Carefully inverting the canoe for display.
  • Attaching WALL-E’s feet.
  • Assembling the steel bridge for display.
  • Assembling the steel bridge for display.
  • We need another small piece of wood – good thing we brought a saw!
  • USC ASCE NASA-style logo on our Space Shuttle Cutaway Section.
  • Completed canoe display.
  • Fully-assembled bridge.
  • Partial Canoe Team with DiSCovery II.
  • Our final product display table and space shuttle canoe cut-away section.
  • Our canoe cut-away section: a space shuttle.
  • Selfie with WALL-E!
  • DiSCovery II on display.
  • Our 2014 Steel Bridge on display.
  • Nicole with DiSCovery II.
  • Canoe team display.
  • DiSCovery II with its asteroid and WALL-E display stands.
  • Our 2014 Steel Bridge.
  • “The orientation of our canoe display creates a space where exhausted students can rest in its cast shadow.” – a building science student
  • Everyone loves WALL-E!
  • Nicole with our Final Product Display.
  • People view our canoe and bridge displays.
  • Not-the-canoe-team with one of our practitioner advisors.
  • DiSCovery II and the final product display.
  • Canoe Display.
  • Space Shuttle Cut-away Section.
  • Space Shuttle Cut-away Section.
  • Space Shuttle Cut-away Section.
  • DiSCovery II on display.
  • Our 2014 Steel Bridge on display.
  • Everyone loves WALL-E!
  • Our canoe captains deliver the oral presentation.
  • Carrying the canoe back to the trailer, to rest before tomorrow’s races.
Environmental, PSWC

PSWC 2014 Day 1: Environmental Competiton

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Our environmental team successfully completed their water treatment challenge to remove nitrate and phosphorus from a water sample, earning 5th place in a field of 15 schools.

  • Environmental captains strategize for their competition.
  • Preparing for the start of the competition.
  • Preparing to pour the water into the system.
  • Preparing to pour the water into the system for treatment.
  • Pouring the water into the system for treatment.
  • The system beings to treat the water.
  • Daphne shows off our low-cost, sustainable, water-treatment system.
  • Checking the time elapsed.
  • Waiting for the water treatment system to do its work.
  • Environmental presentation team.
  • Environmental Design Team.
PSWC

PSWC 2014 Day 1: Mystery Event

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Mystery event is an event where we send several of our members to the competition where they proceed to compete in several challenges that were not previously announced. This year’s team had a blast, fully embracing the spirit of the competition.

  • Team huddle selfie.
  • Many-legged-race practice.
  • 6-person, 7-legged race.
  • Environmental team captains cheer on the mystery event team.
  • Strategizing session between rounds.
  • Water balloon catching bullseye.
  • Everyone jumps for a water balloon.
  • Water balloon catch.
PSWC

PSWC 2014 Day 1: Family Feud Quiz

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This year’s PSWC quiz event challenged students with an individual scan-tron-style quiz on engineering topics in the qualification round. After tying for second (out of 18 schools) in the qualifications, we advanced to the more energetic Family Feud tournament for the final rounds.  We named “Occupations That Begin With the Letter ‘A,’” but had trouble thinking of “Things You Do With Two Hands.”

  • Family Feud Quiz Team.
  • Watching other schools compete in the Family Feud tournament.
  • Preparing to compete in family feud.
  • Competing in Family Feud.
  • Family Feud Quiz Team.
  • Our quiz team may not be as cool as they think they are, but they are pretty smart.