April 21, 2016
Cross-disciplinary design team wins special award at Architectural Engineering Institute Student Design Competition
A team of 10 K-State students from three programs in the College of Engineering was honored with a special award, Resiliency in Design — with respect to local and environmental conditions — April 1 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, during the 2016 Architectural Engineering Institute Student Design Competition.
The competition attracts top architectural engineering students from the country's leading academic institutions offering architectural engineering degrees. Its goal is to provide a venue for students to showcase the value of education in architectural engineering in an applied industry-style environment. The competition encourages collaboration, research, innovation and peer review.
Thirteen teams from eight different architectural engineering programs participated in the submittal portion of the competition. Seven teams were invited to present at the finals for the competition before a jury of 12. In the history of the competition, 2010 to present, Kansas State University remains the only institution to have won or placed in at least one of the categories each year.
K-State's team included Christopher Wearing, Christopher Bolin, Spencer Combs, Austin Curnutt, Cassandra Ford, Paul Kempainen and Nicole Sabourin, all architectural engineering; Hunter Elliott and Emily Krampe, both construction science; and Seth Heronemus, civil engineering.
This year's challenge was to address design, integration and construction issues that must be considered for a 17-story, mixed-use office building located on Boylston Street in Boston. The submittals addressed construction, design issues and life-cycle cost concepts related to a high-performance building. The K-State design team focused heavily on a unique structural system designed to avoid conflicts with an underground portion of the Massachusetts turnpike that ran below the building.
The K-State team was mentored by architectural engineering and construction science faculty members Russ Murdock, team coordinator and electrical adviser; Bill Zhang, structural adviser; Christopher Ahern, mechanical adviser; and Shannon Casebeer construction adviser.
"I couldn't be more proud of the way team members came together across their various disciplines to present their idea of hardening the building's structural, mechanical and electrical systems against the possibility of locally severe environmental conditions," Murdock said.