Tag Archives: Kevin Buck

UMKC Steel Bridge Team Competes At Regionals

This year the Steel Bridge team competed at the Mid-Continent Conference Steel Bridge Regionals held at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE). The competition was held April 4, with a record number of teams, fourteen, attending from the Mid Continent Conference. This year our team, the SteelRoos, did remarkably well but fell short of the top three. Our SteelRoos build time was good and the bridge stiffness was very good, winning 3rd place. The one of a kind connections used for the bridge intrigued many participants. However, some key construction and dimensional penalties knocked our SteelRoos out of the running for the top honors. Co-Captains Taylor Christmas and Jessica Everhart and team members, Kevin Buck, Huy Dao, Mitchell Eutsler, Jon Lamanes, Paige Norris, Spencer Solon, Jade Rodell-Tipton, Megan Ryan conducted themselves in a professional manner and represented UMKC and SCE very well. Professors John Kevern and Jerry Richardson serve as faculty co-advisors for the team. Much was learned for next year and many of this year’s team members will be returning. We are all proud of them!

Civil Engineering Students Win Awards at ACI Missouri Concrete conference

Our American Concrete Institute (ACI) student chapter brought home top awards from the ACI Missouri Concrete Conference held on April 26, 2012 at MS&T in Rolla. The conference featured two student competitions organized by construction industry professionals attending the conference. Civil Engineering (CE) senior Kevin Buck won 1st place in the undergraduate poster competition and Master’s CE student Gunjan Sheye won 3rd place in the graduate poster competition. It was clear that team work pays off when CE senior Andrew O’Laughlin and Gunjan Shetye won 1st place for best artistic concrete. The winners were awarded cash prizes sponsored by the ACI Missouri chapter. Completing its first year as a student organization, our UMKC ACI student chapter can take pride in its achievements. CE faculty Ceki Halmen, John Kevern and Ganesh Thiagarajan are ACI student chapter faculty advisors.

Outstanding Students & Teams honored at SCE’s Spring Awards

SCE honored our outstanding students and student teams at the UMKC SCE Spring Awards Reception held on April 26, 2012. Outstanding student awards were announced for a junior, senior, masters and I.Ph.D student in each of SCE’s degree programs. Outstanding students are selected by their department’s faculty. Selection is based on GPA and the student’s contributions in terms of participation and leadership in SCE student organizations and teams. Student competition teams receiving awards included the ASCE Steel Bridge Team who earned first place at the 2012 regional competition, the ACM Programming Team who won 3rd place at the 2012 Central Plains Conference Programming Competition, the IEEE Robotics Team who won 4th place in circuit design at their regional competition and the SAE Baja Buggy Team who qualified for the next competition level. Congratulations to the all our Spring Award recipients!

Also honored were Good Teaching Award Recipients Jerry Richardson of SCE’s Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department and Brian Hare of SCE’s Computer Science Electrical Engineering Department for their excellence in teaching.

UMKC Steel Bridge Team Wins First Place Overall at Regionals

UMKC SCE’s Steel Bridge Team is going to the AISC Steel Bridge Nationals! The team of 5 seniors and 5 juniors have been declared the regional champions, returning from the April 19-20 Mid-Continent Conference Steel Bridge Competition in Lincoln, NE with FIVE 1st place wins, including FIRST PLACE OVERALL. Judged in 7 categories, our UMKC Steel Roos took first place in the categories of Construction Speed, Stiffness, Lightness, Efficiency and of course, FIRST OVERALL. They placed second in Economy and fifth in Display. Of particular interest and pride is that the measured deflection their bridge experienced upon loading matched exactly their analytical predictions! Two SCE seniors, Kyle Dunning and Isaac Somogie, were team co-leaders. Professors John Kevern and Jerry Richardson served as faculty co-advisors for the team. The team will go on to compete at the AISC Steel Bridge Nationals held May 25-26, 2012 at Clemson University. K-State secured second place overall and earned a trip to nationals as well. The final ranking was 1) UMKC, 2) KSU, 3) Mizzou, 4) UNL – Omaha, 5) MST, 6) UNL – Lincoln, 7) KU, 8 ) SIUE, 9) SLU, 10) U of OK, 11) SIUC and 12) MO State, OK State, & U of Arkansas.

Our Steel Roos have a tremendous record in this competition! In the last seven years of competition at the annual Mid-Continent Conference Steel Bridge Competition, the UMKC Steel Bridge Team has placed FIRST 5 times. This is unprecedented by any Steel Bridge team within the conference. From 2006-2009 they placed FIRST for four consecutive years; in 2010 the team took a year off from competition in order to rebuild; and in 2011 the team was disqualified because their bridge exceeded lateral deflection limits. At the 2009 national competition in Las Vegas, our Steel Roos took 1st in Stiffness and placed in the 10 ten of teams competing. We hope that 2012 will be the year when our Steel Roos advance their ranking at the national competition! 

From left to right: Jade Rodell, Jessica Everhart, Jessica Sturgess,Christy Wilson, Isaac Smogie, Kevin Buck, Spencer Solon, Taylor Christmas, Huy Dao and Kyle Dunning