Tag Archives: Aesthetics

Concrete Canoe, Misc. PSWC Events

Saturday Night PSWC Prep

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We’re all working hard to get everything ready for PSWC 2015. Our Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, Geotechnical, Dog House, and Concrete Bowling teams are all putting in long hours today in the KAP Basement, and everyone’s super excited for conference!

  • Painting the dog house, steel bridge, and transportation poster stands.
  • Noah paints the concrete bowling ball.
  • Painting the lettering on the canoe.
  • Assembling the display table.
  • 4 Days to PSWC 2015!
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.
Concrete Canoe, Environmental, Misc. PSWC Events, PSWC, Steel Bridge

Final PSWC 2014 Preparations

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All of our design teams are busy with last-minute preparations for PSWC 2014. We’re off to San Diego tonight, excited to compete!

  • Ben grinds down a piece of the steel bridge.
  • Ben grinds down a piece of the bridge.
  • The Steel Bridge team prepares to practice assembling their bridge.
  • The Steel Bridge team practices assembling their bridge.
  • Kelly holds the results of a failed concrete bowling ball test.
  • The Concrete Bowling Ball awaits its paint job.
  • The Environmental team’s system goes through a test run.
  • Cleaning the basement canoe area.
  • The space shuttle cut-away section, complete with cardinal red steel stands made from last year’s steel bridge.
  • Kelly and Lucy assemble the final product display table.
  • Admiring the completed canoe-staining.
  • DiSCovery II awaits its lettering.
  • Lucy applies a second coat of paint to the canoe letters.
  • Jake paints canoe letters.
  • Erin paints “Southern” onto the canoe.
  • Carefully painting lettering onto DiSCovery II.
  • Painting on the canoe & university name.
  • Erin paints lettering onto the canoe.
  • Touching up the canoe lettering.
  • Erin and Jessica discuss the status of the canoe finishing.
  • Jessica and Erin paint “DiSCovery II” onto the canoe.
  • Jessica carefully touches up the canoe lettering.
  • Painting lettering onto the canoe.
  • Removing a lettering stencil from the canoe.
  • Watching paint dry.
  • Touching up the canoe lettering.
  • Erin cuts out labels for the concrete aggregate samples for the display table.
  • Jessica goes into full-on artist mode while staining the canoe.
  • All of USC ASCE’s equipment and creations are safely packed into the U–Haul to head to San Diego.
  • WALL-E Looks over DiSCovery II and the rest of our gear in the U-Haul.
Concrete Canoe

Concrete Canoe Update

We’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on our concrete canoe and its auxiliary components over the past few weeks. Our cut-away section is a seven-foot-long space shuttle, complete with red steel stands (not pictured):

space-shuttle-section

Our two stands include a massive asteroid (made out of concrete, of course), and a special robotic guest:

asteroid-stand

We’re building some other cool stuff, including a canoe, of course, but you’ll have to wait until PSWC to see everything else. For now check out the construction pics:

  • Lucy and Kelly carve an asteroid out of Styrofoam.
  • Placing a concrete shell on the asteroid canoe stand.
  • Preparing to paint the asteroid canoe stand.
  • Team members admire the (shiny) DiSCovery I Practice Canoe as they remove it from the mold.
  • Re-lining the canoe with contact paper for the DiSCovery II pour.
  • Placing concrete.
  • A carefully orchestrated operation of mixing and placing concrete.
  • Mixing concrete for DiSCovery II.
  • Placing concrete in DiSCovery II.
  • Adding another layer of reinforcement (this time fiberglass).
  • Preparing to build a curing tent for DiSCovery II.
  • Assembling PVC pipes for the DiSCovery II curing tent.
  • Post pour-day-II celebratory team dinner!
  • Erin and Jessica assemble Styrofoam blocks to be cut into a space shuttle.
  • We just sanded a big block of foam into the shape of a space shuttle…
  • SC Traveler was finally removed from behind our building, to make room for DiSCovery I and DiSCovery II after PSWC 2014.
  • While SC Traveler was a great improvement for our 2013 canoe team, we’re hoping to reach new levels of success with DiSCovery II.
  • Preparing to place concrete in our space shuttle cut-away section.
  • Jessica sands sheets of Styrofoam into wings.
  • Freshly painted space rocks to accompany our asteroid stand.
  • Preparing to remove DiSCovery II from its mold.
  • Removing DiSCovery II from its mold.
  • Admiring our shiny new canoe.
  • DiSCovery II awaits sanding and staining.
  • Sanding the exterior of the canoe.
  • Canoe captain Jake sands the canoe, unafraid of the plentiful concrete dust.
  • Erin sands the canoe.
  • Tyler delicately brushes excess concrete dust off of the canoe.
  • Jessica meticulously sands the canoe.
  • Sanding the exterior of the canoe.
  • Erin (supposed to be working on the display board) says hi!
  • The first layer of staining is completed.
Concrete Canoe, Environmental, Misc. PSWC Events, Steel Bridge

Design Team Prep for PSWC 2013 in Full Gear

As we approach the 2013 ASCE Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC), our design teams are all working hard to complete their projects. Since USC is co-hosting PSCW this year, each team is taking extra care to produce an exceptional final product. PSWC events will take place on the USC campus on Thursday April 4th and Saturday April 6th, check out the full schedule here. If you’re at USC, you won’t want to miss the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge Aesthetics Competition from 8am-5pm on Thursday at Alumni Park. Here’s an update on each design team’s progress.

Concrete Canoe

Gold Canoe Angle
Our concrete canoe has been stained USC Gold and is almost ready for PSWC.

This year’s canoe is named “SC Traveler.” We’ve worked on the canoe for several hours every night this week, and it’s paid off. Despite some major time setbacks with mold removal, we’re ahead of schedule thanks to multiple tasks completed faster than expected, and we finished applying the stain and sealant today. Canoe races are on Friday, at the Santa Fe Dam.

We took a break from the canoe to make a dumpster run.
We took a break from the canoe to make a dumpster run.

The canoe aesthetics are also nearing completion. We plan to add our team name to the canoe in cardinal lettering tomorrow. We’ll also finish up our display board, which features an original, USC-themed design.

Environmental Team

Environmental Team members assemble their final water-distribution system.
Environmental Team members assemble their final water-collection system.

The environmental design team worked on assembling their final water collection system last night. Their competition leads off the main PSWC design team events, occurring at Pardee Plaza from 8am-12pm. Our team looks solid and the competition should be exciting.

Steel Bridge

Thomas Welds Bridge Parts
Thomas Welds Bridge Parts

The steel bridge team is also putting in long hours and nearing completion. Once the bridge itself is done, the team will determine and practice the bridge assembly orchestration. As with canoe, the bridge team will create their display board and other finishing elements in the few days before competition as well. The 2013 PSWC Steel Bridge competition takes place on Saturday April 6th from 7am-4pm at Pardee Plaza at USC.

Other Miscellaneous PSWC News and Events

Concrete Horseshoe Curing
Concrete Horseshoe Curing

In other news, the concrete horseshoes and concrete bowling ball have been formed and are ready for competition. There are many other exciting events going on at PSWC, so you should check out the schedule for details.

Our USC ASCE E-Board is finalizing event coordination as well. Over 1,000 bottled waters and other snacks and beverages were wheeled through the design team area to the PSWC storage room today. Other E-Board members worked on finalizing the USC ASCE members’ PSWC event schedules. Overall, it’s shaping up to be an exciting conference and we’re all anxiously awaiting the competitions!