For the Reporter

For a hardworking team of Saint Martin’s University civil engineering students, several months of planning, building and testing ended triumphantly when its 17-foot-long concrete beam bested all but one competitor in the annual Big Beam Contest.

The Saint Martin’s team placed second in a matchup against major universities from throughout the nation, taking home a monetary prize of $1,750 and a lot of pride in their growing professional ability. PCI, the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, contest sponsors, announced the results Aug. 10.

The team included Auburn’s Kyle Howlett.

“The engineering faculty and staff are thrilled with these results. This was the first time Saint Martin’s had ever entered the big beam contest, and we came in second of the 29 teams,” said David Olwell, Ph.D., dean of the University’s Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering.

The annual contest requires each team to design and fabricate a precast/prestressed concrete beam to contest specifications, then test it until it fails, measuring the actual results against their pre-test calculations and other factors. After testing, teams send their results to PCI, where they are judged on several factors, including efficiency of the design and the beam’s highest load capacity.

Saint Martin’s team members, who worked on their beam during their spare time, gave it the pet name of “The Kraken.”

The Kraken scored 58.25 points, bested only by the University of Notre Dame’s score of 62.25.

Elsewhere

Gabrielle Lane, of Auburn, has been named to the Whitworth University Provost’s honor roll for spring semester. … The BECU Foundation has awarded $3,000 college scholarships each to Auburn’s Kyleigh Carbon, Christian Knutson, Krista Vavrik and Andrew Wallen. They’re among 80 students to receive the award. The scholarship recipients were chosen based on their academic performance and passion for helping others through volunteering.