The 2021 ASCE Mid-Pacific Student Conference, organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), was held online from April 15 to April 17. ZJUI Civil Engineering Student Xiaoyu YAN won the runner-up prize, under the guidance of ZJUI Adjunct Faculty Dr. Ryan P. Flanagan.
▲ Online Awarding Ceremony
The essay competition in which Xiaoyu participated focused on the participants' critical thinking and oral presentation skills, requiring of them to write an essay discussing ethical issues in civil engineering based on their understanding and reflection of the code of ethics for civil engineers, and then present their main ideas through a defense. The competition has high requirements for the originality of the players' viewpoints, logic, fluency in English expression, and the ability to delivery speeches. Unlike previous engineering ethics competitions, this competition focuses on the role and responsibilities of civil engineers under the current global pandemic with strong practical significance.
▲ 2021 Topic of the Competition
In facing the reality of the competition, Yan Xiaoyu admitted, “The process of searching for the topic is complicated and painful. Choosing a unique entry point in the vast civil engineering field to bring forth and explain your arguments, and achieving a breakthrough 0 to 1 is not easy.” In order to transform the more abstract ethical engineering concepts into concrete problems, and then accurately expressing her views on the problems, she took the initiative to sacrifice a lot of time during the winter vacation. Through an attitude of continuous investment of every second of every day in reading through more than one hundred Chinese and foreign selection of literature in the library, she finally was finally able to gather a basic understanding of the history, development and major research areas of engineering ethics. Through this she was also able to determine how to make the entry point of her dissertation, by deciding to start with urban public spaces, exploring its physical and spiritual significance to people and its response to social crisis.
"The writing of the thesis must reflect both the rigour of the project and the human concern for ethical and realistic thinking." She shared her experience with us about the difficulty of writing her thesis. The award-winning paper, though only 2,000 words long, was edited 25 times before and after, with editor-in-chief for more than 200 hours, because of her discretionary wording. "Each point is supported by sufficient arguments to ensure that the logic and discourse of each link is complete and rigorous." according what Yan said. Being able to stand out on the global stage and fully demonstrate the English essay writing ability of ZJUI students is inseparable from ZJUI's emphasis on the cultivation of students’ essay writing ability. Yan says the first-year writing course has given students a good foundation for English writing and critical thinking. Whether it's her experience as a teaching assistant in RHET101, RHET102 writing courses, her involvement in the College's writing workshop experience, or her regular weekly interactions with her instructor, Dr. Ryan P. Flanagan, she has gained a deeper understanding of writing that has helped her a lot.
The competition not only examines the ability to write essays, but also examines the outstanding performance of candidates and their performance in the defense session which was also the key to making Yan Xiaoyu come out as the victor amongst all other competitors. She commented that she treated the defense session just the same as any other daily defense presentation at ZJUI, and tried her best to prepare, but calmly. When asked by the respondent professor how civil engineers should make people remember the epidemic, she recalled her experience of visiting the Fangju Memorial Museum in Wuhan, and said, "Civil engineers can give people the courage to overcome difficulties, timeless memories of history, and a vision of the future by transforming the "battlegrounds" that have lived through life and death struggles." a reminder of the past, and a thought for the future in a larger blueprint. This may be the deeper meaning that civil engineers should give to building architecture and spaces."
▲ YAN Xiaoyu(Left,) XU Peiyao（Right）
This experience from participating in the competition, gave Xiaoyu more to think about regarding future responsibilities. "The civil engineers of the new era are not merely just brick-movers on the site, but social builders with feelings and sense of responsibility. Civil engineers may not be on the front line fighting viruses like angels in white, but we can still use our expertise to design sustainable, resilient, humane communities and make our contribution to building a sustainable and friendly society. ”
The American College Student Civil Engineering Competition is a long standing competition established by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). There are four events in this competition: concrete canoe building, transportation, sustainable design, and thesis writing. The participating teams include the world's top universities in the United States, China, Canada and other places, such as the University of California, Berkeley, Davis, and many other American universities. Universities, and Zhejiang University, Tongji University, Southeast University, Hohai University, Dalian University of Technology and other Chinese universities.
Peiyao XU, another civil engineering student from Class of 2022, ZJUI, teamed up with students from the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture and won the fifth place in the sustainable design contest. Peiyao XU said that in the process of preparing for the competition, no matter the process whether it was acquiring knowledge about building structural design in all aspects, brainstorming with her teammates to come up with a unique design that was praised by the judges, or the relief she felt at the end when she saw the completion of the model proposal, it was an experience that she remembered vividly that gave her full sense of pride brought on by the great achievement.
