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Civil Engineering
EACSB 1.202
Email: cive@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 665-3038

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News

2022 News

Great news to share, our UTRGV Civil Engineering students team has won the GeoWall national competition just held in North Carolina during the Geo-Congress, the largest national/international conference in the area of Geotechnical Engineering. This competition is organized yearly by the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Last time, we got 2nd place (only 0.1 point far from 1st place). This year, Our UTRGV team won the championship by receiving the 1st place (with the 2nd place being 13 points far below). See pics bellow!

 Team Holds throphy

The team holds the Vs up

Look at the finalists list of universities ….UCLA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Texas A&M and others! Super proud of our UTRGV civil engineering students.

 Team wins 1st place

Top Qualifiers List

Our College’s Dean Dr. Ala Qubbaj would like to thank the team’s advisor and mentor Dr. Thang Pham (who is one of the top experts in the area),  Dr. Thuy Vu (who managed the team and motivated the students), and Dr. Jungseok Ho (dept chair who provided all needed support). Congratulations to all!  

 The team points at the Finalist List.

2020 News

The Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers’  National GeoWall,  held During GeoCongress 2020,  is the most competitive national student competition in the area of Geotechnical Engineering. GeoCongress is the largest international conference in Geotechnical engineering https://www.geocongress.org/. Teams are challenged to provide optimal design of bridge abutments at model scale. The teams have to design, construct and test a wooden sandbox and carry out the largest vertical load and will remain stable for a period of time to win. This is the link with official name and rules for this year: https://www.geocongress.org/sites/geocongress.org/2020/files/inline-files/geo-congress-2020-national-geowall-competition-rules.pdf.

Team with the advisor Dr. Thang Pham, P.E.

Many well-known national universities participate this event for many years. This is the first time UTRGV participates. We are among  the finalists that are invited to the conference to compete. For 20 finalists, there are UCLA, UIUC, RPI - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, UC Davis, Lafayette College…. In the pics are the results:

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 295.6 points ranked 1st
  • UTRGV 295.5 ranked 2nd
  • North Dakota State 294.4 ranked 3rd
  • UCLA 278.7     4th
  • Texas A&M 278.2    5th

Results of GeoWall 2020

With our College's slogan "Successful Together"

We are 0.1 points/300 points from the trophy. Our team used LEAST reinforcement material, but with our optimum design (dimensions and positions of the reinforcement+ construction techniques), our box  hold  more than 2 times of load as required!  Unfortunately we got minus 2 points because of the timing.  

The team’s advisor, Dr. Thang Pham, is one of the top experts in bridge abutment. He has worked closely with the students, and he is super proud of the students. They are very dedicated, bright, and  hard working. They have worked in almost every weekend for months. Second place national, for the first try - they make us all very proud!

When they received the plaque

The 1st and 3rd place Teams

 UTRGV team with the first and the third place teams at the Geo Congress in Minnesota. 

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