UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Two teams of Penn State architectural engineering students came away with eight awards at the 2015 Charles Pankow Foundation Annual Architectural Engineering Student Design Competition on March 25.
The competition, organized by the Architectural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and hosted by the Milwaukee School of Engineering, challenged students to address the design, integration and construction issues for an urban commercial farm housed in a five-story building with a basement area consisting of approximately 50,000 total square feet.
According to Kevin Parfitt, professor of architectural engineering and faculty adviser, Penn State was the only university of the five that competed, that was represented by two teams. He added, "Of the 16 possible awards, Penn State architectural engineering took eight places, the most overall awards of any school."
Students' submissions are judged by a jury of practitioners from around the country and awards are given in each of five categories – construction, electrical, mechanical, structural and integration.
Penn State's team Total Building Design Engineering won first place in the construction category and runner up in the integration category.
The team consisted of Kevin Barth, Todd Holbert, Adam Jesberger, Patrice Mulhern, Yuka Narisako, Cody Slack, James Weaver and Tommy Wei.
Penn State's team Synthesis – Engineering for Architecture won the runner up award in all five categories. They also received the Innovation Award.
Student members included Zachary Brown, Dana Burzo, Calvin Dalton, Michael Hardesty, Malcolm Murray, Tyler Poff, Kevin Reichert and Sydney Sterling.
The winning team in each category received $1000, and the first two runner-up teams in each category were awarded $400.
Team Synthesis – Engineering for Architecture received an additional $700 for the Innovation Award.
Both teams were recognized at an awards banquet on March 26.
In addition to Parfitt, advisers were architectural engineering faculty members Charles Cox, Moses Ling, Richard Mistrick and Ryan Solnosky and architectural engineering alumnus Craig Dubler.
The competition included teams from Kansas State University, Lawrence Technological University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Nebraska.