U of M Geotechnical Engineering Team takes home 3rd place in US competition

UofM Team Testing their retaining wall

On March 24, 2017, students from the Faculty of Engineering traveled down south of the border to participate in the 2017 GeoWall competition hosted by the Minnesota State University, Mankato.  The objective of the GeoWall competition was to design and build a model mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall using paper reinforcement taped to a posterboard wall facing. The design goal was to use the least amount of reinforcement to support the retained soil and design loads. The team from U of M was the only Canadian Team to participate out of the seven universities participating in the event and placed 3rd in the competition and placed 2nd on their report.  This was the first time a U of M team has competed.

Team members included Graduate Students: Earl de Guzman and Samuel Kaluzny and Undergraduate Students: Dylan Stafford and Devon Adamson.  Dr. Alfaro was the Team’s Faculty Advisor. Team captain of the group Earl reports that “for our team, this competition was a good exercise to apply what we’ve learned in theory to a small-scale physical model.  It allowed us to observe behaviour and mechanisms that otherwise won’t be appreciated if only calculated on paper… As engineers, we design our structures to satisfy serviceability requirements and anticipate conditions that will make our structures susceptible to failure and prevent such conditions from happening. The competition allowed us to demonstrate our knowledge, communicate our analysis and design processes, and most importantly share and enjoy a friendly competition among other universities.”

The team was sponsored by the Canadian Geotechnical Society – Manitoba Section, TREK Geotechnical Inc., and the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Manitoba.

Congratulations to the team and thank you to the sponsors that made their participation possible.

Brandy OReilly