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UT Knoxville CSI Chapter Wins Design Competition at National Convention

Students from the College of Architecture and Design, traveled to the Construction Specification Institute (CSI) annual convention in Indianapolis in mid-June. As part of the convention, students participated in the Construct2009, a special design competition in which they placed first.

The challenge: design and construct a Segway enclosure over the two-day period of the convention.

The Construct2009 Segway challenge was inspired by a real-life project currently being undertaken by the city of Indianapolis. The city is developing a unique pedestrian and cyclist route, called the Indianapolis Cultural Trail (ITC), which encircles the downtown business district. (For more information visit www.indyculturaltrial.org.)

With the development of the ITC, Indianapolis has witnessed the growing popularity of the Segway Personal Transporter (visit http://segway.com/index.php.) Because the city wishes to ensure that its Segway-riding guests can stop along the trail and leave their personal transporter for hours at a time, a need has developed for a safe, secure and weather-resistant Segway enclosure.

CSI awarded the UT Knoxville chapter the first place prize of $1,500 and named its design "Best in Show."

The winning group included Lauretta Cocke (president), Samuel Barringer (vice president) and Nathan Kocaj (recent graduate).

"I am proud of our students," said Lecturer James Rose, the faculty liaison for the UT Knoxville CSI student chapter. "They approached the competition with both creativity and discipline. I am certain that they were the only team to show the initiative of creating a mock-up of their proposed design before leaving for the convention. When they arrived they not only had a strong concept, but a set of drawings to help implement it. The ability to bring a concept to reality while working in a team will serve these students in practice and reflects well on both the CSI student chapter and the College of Architecture and Design."

William Sundquist, the professional CSI Tennessee Chapter president, echoed Rose's remarks saying that the students were "brilliant" and that UT has every reason to be proud.

A video of the winning team is posted on YouTube. (Visit www.youtube.com and type in "2009 Student Competition - University of Tennessee Knoxville".)

Congratulations to the UT Knoxville student chapter of CSI!

About CSI:
CSI is a national association dedicated to creating standards and formats to improve construction documents and project delivery. The organization is unique in the industry in that its members are a cross section of specifiers, architects, engineers, contractors and building materials suppliers. The organization has 146 chapters and more than 15,000 members. CSI provides continuing education, professional conferences, and product shows. For more info visit http://www.csinet.org.