ACI Spring Convention highlights sustainability
CHICAGO – Engineers, architects, contractors, educators, manufacturers, and material representatives from all over the world will assemble at the American Concrete Institute’s (ACI) Spring 2010 Convention, March 21-25, 2010, in Chicago. They will provide input on concrete industry codes, specifications, and guides throughout the more than 300 committee meetings and 35 technical sessions.

In addition, attendees will participate in technical tours, forums discussing pertinent industry topics, student competitions, networking events, and events celebrating career and industry achievements.

A forum on the reclassification of fly ash as a hazardous material will prepare attendees to assess whether that action is a step forward or backward. The forum, coordinated by ACI Committee 123, will outline what implications the reclassification of fly ash will have on advances the concrete industry has made toward a sustainable concrete construction.

ACI also announced several new sustainability focused events taking place during the Spring 2010 Convention. ACI will unveil The Sustainable Concrete Guide - Strategies and Examples, the first in a series of guides on sustainable concrete published by the U.S. Green Concrete Council and available for purchase through ACI. This comprehensive resource on concrete and sustainability will provide design professionals with insight on specific strategies for the best use of concrete in high-performance, long-lasting green buildings. The guide will feature case studies, technical data/references, and numerous practices prepared for immediate implementation.

Also new at the spring convention, the ACI-CMPBS Pervious Concrete Student Competition, cosponsored by ACI and the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS), will challenge students to design and cast a pervious concrete specimen that maximizes permeability while also maintaining good splitting tensile strength.

To promote sustainability with concrete, two prize categories are offered: Specimen Testing and Sustainability Report. Teams entering the Sustainability Report prize category must submit a report on the sustainability benefits of pervious concrete detailing environmental impact.

The Specimen Testing category will place emphasis on the method, mixture design, and procedure used to create the team’s specimen. Each team may enter one or both categories. Results for the Student Competitions will be announced during the Student Lunch on Monday, March 22.

Additionally, a technical session titled Sustainable Design in Structural Concrete will be held Wednesday, March 24. This technical session will discuss and explain methods for reducing the environmental impact associated with concrete materials and construction of structural elements. Examples highlighting cutting-edge methods and applications for sustainable concrete production, material optimization, and function-specific design will be included in the session.

State dam safety group announces student paper competition
LEXINGTON, KY. — The Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) recently announced its second annual student paper competition. ASDSO invites students to submit papers on topics related to dam and levee safety, including engineering, geology, hydrology, hydraulics, environmental and agricultural sciences, design, construction, risk, hazard mitigation, emergency management, floods, floodplain management, case studies, security, policy issues and more.

Winners will present their papers at Dam Safety 2010, ASDSO’s Annual National Conference, to be held in Seattle, Sept. 19-23, 2010.

Students eligible for the competition must be actively pursuing a degree at a U.S. college or university at the time of the abstract deadline. Full-time, part-time, and cooperative education students are eligible.

Papers may be coauthored by faculty or colleagues who are not students, but only student authors who present papers are eligible for prizes. Papers cannot have been previously published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere.

Students may submit abstracts of up to 400 words and a full paper outline or two- to three-page summary online or by e-mail. Abstracts are due Feb. 10, 2010. On March 26, ASDSO will issue invitations for full papers; draft papers are then due June 2; and awards will be announced on June 23.

Additional information is available online at www.damsafety.org