UHPC beam competition team members (left to right): Alex Carriere, Sarah De Carufel, Corey Guertin-Normoyle and Ahmad Shahroodi
Two teams of engineering students travelled to a conference held in Des Moines, Iowa, and won in the student and paper competition.
The inaugural International Interactive Symposium on UHPC (ultra-high-performance concrete), brought together researchers and professionals from all over the world, including a group of engineering students from the University of Ottawa. The objective of this event was to provide a platform to share knowledge and ideas about this material’s design and its application; a companion student competition was also held to grow interest in this specialty among engineering and architecture students.
Sarah De Carufel receiving the best paper award at the UHPC 20-16 conference
On July 19, a team consisting of graduate students Ahmad Shahroodi, Corey Guertin-Normoyle, Alex Carriere and Sarah De Carufel represented the university in the student competition as one of ten teams selected to move on to the final round. The team was sponsored by the Faculty of Engineering, CEED, and the "Ontario" and "National Capital Section" chapters of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (CSCE). After successfully passing the first phase of the competition, the team travelled to Iowa State University where they placed third among the finalists. That same day, at the conference banquet, Christian Melançon and Sarah De Carufel were given the Best Paper Award for their paper “Blast Behaviour of One-Way Panel Components Constructed with UHPC”. This is especially exciting news as they faced steep competition from many qualified researchers from around the world.
Hassan Aoude, from the Department of Civil Engineering, who worked closely with the students and also attended the conference, commented that, “For their paper to be selected among over 75 presented papers from the top UHPC researchers in the world is a truly outstanding achievement. Congratulations Christian and Sarah! And although they didn't get the 1st place [at the student competition], the team was shining at the conference and many attendees and professors commented on their excellent team spirit. Congratulations Ahmad, Corey, Alex and Sarah. You guys made me very proud!”
