Many USC ASCE members attended the annual CEE Department Holiday Party, as well as the USC ASCE After-Party. Here are the seniors with Professor Synolakis:
Category Archives: Events
New CEE Undergraduate Student Orientation
This past weekend marked the first “New Student CEE Orientation”, hosted by ASCE in conjunction with other CEE student organizations and the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The goal was to give incoming freshmen and transfer students an idea of the opportunities that civil engineering provides both as a student and after graduation. As an organization, we have found that students become more involved in their sophomore and junior years once they begin to take more CEE-oriented classes. We encourage freshmen to participate in any civil or environmental organizations right from the start as it provides students with more exposure to CEE as an industry as well as a network of other like-minded individuals.
To our delight, the event proved to be a success! There was an attendance of approximately 15 new students, which was quite a good turn out considering the small size of the department. The event kicked off with an introduction to the department by the department chair, Dr. Lucio Soibelman. He gave a warm welcome to all of the new students and an interesting overview of the faculty and their research.
Next up was an alumni panel comprised of four current professionals who all studied at USC as undergraduates and some as graduate students as well. There were a good variety of the various disciplines of CEE represented on the panel, with structural design, building enclosure systems, construction, and water services included. The alumni had much insight to share with the participants – both new students and upperclassmen facilitators! They described their experiences as undergraduate students, their involvements, and life working as an industry professional. Notably, every panelist strongly recommended getting involved in student organizations as early as possible, and every panelist eventually pursued a Master’s degree. It was especially valuable hearing about what they specifically do within their disciplines.
The alumni panel was followed by a much appreciated lunch break, during which all of the students, both old and new, mingled while eating a delicious lunch cooked by our very own Doc! After lunch, some of the ASCE upperclassmen gave brief presentations about their respective emphases including overviews of Building Science, Environmental, and Structural. The event concluded with pitches from all of the CEE organizations including ASCE, Chi Epsilon, ITE, EERI, and CMAA.
We really enjoyed putting on such a successful event, and we have lots of ideas for hosting something similar together for next year!
Join us for the Fall 2014 CEE Student Orgs Tailgate!
Please join us for the Fall 2014 CEE Student Orgs Tailgate! Meet members from USC’s American Society of Civil Engineers, Construction Management Association of America, Institution of Transportation Engineers, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, and Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honors Society. Food and drink will be provided.
Date: October 4th, 2014
Time: 11:30am-4:30pm
Location: Email to be sent day of with confirmation
Please contact our social chairs at social@uscasce.com with any questions. See you there!
PSWC Sports Day
In preparation for next week’s Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC) competitions, we hosted a sports day. Our basketball, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee teams got in some valuable practice, and we’re optimistic heading into the tournaments!
CEE Department Ski Trip
USC ASCE members at the 1st Annual CEE Department Ski Trip at Big Bear Mountain
2013 CEE Department Holiday Party
USC ASCE Members at the 2013 CEE Department Holiday Party
Community Service Event: Vine St. Elementary Edible Garden
A group of USC ASCE members got up early on this Saturday morning to help completely rebuild an edible garden at Vine St. Elementary School. Tomás O’Grady of Enrich LA led a team of about 80 volunteers to clear out the old, unmaintained garden and build new raised beds, an irrigation system, a wooden fence, and picnic tables. After six hours in the sun, construction was complete and other groups began planting a variety of vegetables. We got valuable experience that will benefit our design teams’ work, including sanding (we’ll sand our concrete canoe), staining (also staining the canoe), and piping a irrigation system (our environmental design team’s system consists of pipes). Overall, it was a great experience, and we hope to be able to participate in another similar event soon!
We’ll be at the Viterbi New Student Luau tomorrow (Thursday, August 22nd, 2013) to greet all of the incoming civil and environmental engineers and tell you more about ASCE. Be sure to stop by our table and say hi!
PSWC 2013 Day 1: Canoe & Bridge Aesthetics
The highlight of PSWC day 1 is the concrete canoe and steel bridge aesthetics competition. Since we’re hosting PSWC this year, the event took place at the heart of the USC campus, in Alumni Park. Various other events took place today, including the Environmental Design competition.
We’re all thrilled to see KAP at 5:30am KAP was bustling with activity at this early hour The bridge is ready for display We had to fill 100s of gallons of water for the environmental competition, since we’re hosting The environmental system heads up the lift Erin rides a cart past Tommy Trojan. We had to get the cart back to KAP for another load of stuff somehow… Pulling water to Pardee Plaza for Environmental Competition Admiring our just-re-stained, barely finished canoe cross section while waiting for the lift The Steel Bridge rides up the lift EVERYONE had to be at KAP at 5:30 since Canoe, Bridge, and Environmental all had events starting at 7am. Oh, and did I mention we’re hosting? Moving the canoe. I’m not getting into the process of getting it up on the lift… Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Rolling the canoe from KAP to Alumni Park Stopping by the environmental competition to borrow tape. The team prepared extensively for the competition this year We also had turn all of that water into wastewater… since we’re hosting… Canoe, up on the stands, ready for aesthetics work Steel Bridge team assembles the bridge in alumni park Steel Bridge team assembles the bridge in alumni park Setting up for aesthetics. Setting up swords under the bow and stern. Our stuff, with Cal Poly SLO’s in the background. Their canoe budget is about 10x ours. Many teams have lots of money for aesthetics, so they can create elabotate themes and amazing stands. We did pretty good with pretty much nothing. As you can see by the lack of people on Trousdale, it’s still before 8am. Assembling the bridge. Our bridge, in front of SLO’s setup. Our canoe stand features the trojan values and images that represent USC culture. Our theme, SC Traveler, is in honor of our school since we’re co-hosting PSWC this year. Our display board came out pretty good this year. Bridge, Canoe, ready for judging. The Canoe and Display. Post-judging, the display is left up for viewing all day. It’s still just 9:30am. Back at the environmental competition. Our team talks with the environmental judges. Back to supervise the canoe in the afternoon. Now that the sun’s out, our cardinal and gold bridge and canoe really shine. Thomas explains USC ASCE to campus passers-by. The Canoe in front of Doheny Library. Erin, Concrete Canoe Co-Captain, poses with the canoe Erin, Concrete Canoe Co-Captain, poses with the canoe Sian Poses with the canoe Our Display from another angle Our Display from another angle Our Display from another angle Our Display from another angle Our Display from afar Cal Poly SLO Canoe, front/right, our canoe, back/left The Steel Bridge The Steel Bridge The Steel Bridge Our other canoe co-captain is studying abroad in South Africa this semester. But he’s with us in spirit, and is pictured in the leftmost circle on our canoe stand. The Steel Bridge The Concrete Canoe Cutaway Section looked better and better as the day wore on, as the hours-old concrete cured… The Steel Bridge Time to disassemble the aesthetics display and get everything ready for tomorrow’s races. Cleaning up. The steel bridge has once again been condensed to fit onto a single cart. Clean up from afar. We ran over to KAP to start loading the truck with stuff for race day (to be held at Santa Fe Dam). Since we’re co-hosting, and in charge of lunch, we need to load tons of drinks and stuff in addition to the canoe. Stuff waiting to ride up the lift. Lots of drinks, and canoe paddling materials, await moving from the lift into the truck. Where’s the food? We have a special lunch planned. Loading stuff into the truck. Loading stuff into the truck. Back at the Canoe. We’re the only ones left. One canoe, in Alumni Park. Ready to load the canoe in the truck, we realized we need to cover some exposed reinforcement. So, actually we had to make another last-minute concrete patch mix. THIS is the latest we’ve ever put new concrete on the canoe, but at least it’s only a little. The bridge rides back downstairs, and we’re ready to collapse, then get up at 4 again tomorrow morning.