The

Structural Engineering
Institute
of the American Society of Civil Engineers
Presents
Competition Rules
for the SEI Student Structural Engineering
Competition
Held During
2017 Structures Congress
Important Dates
Design papers due: December 16, 2016
Finalists notified: January 31, 2017
Pre-Competition Captains’ Meeting: April 6, 2017
Competition: April 7, 2017

2017 Structures Congress Website:

www.structurescongress.org

SEI Student Structural Engineering Competition Website:

www.asce.org/structural-engineering/sei-students/

Version 2.0: August 26, 2016

 2017 SEI Student Structural Engineering
Competition Rules
Structural Engineering Institute of ASCE

1. Objective – The intent of the 2017 SEI Student Structural Engineering competition is to showcase
student members innovative solutions to a structural problem. The competition will consist of three
components: 1) a paper competition (design report), 2) a structural testing at Structures Congress, and 3)
presentation. The competition objectives are for students to:
a) Design a hardwood structural frame, which can be assembled during competition without the use
of glue or metallic fasteners;
b) Effectively communicate their analysis and design processes;
c) Enjoy a friendly but spirited competition among schools; and
d) Actively participate in a world-class professional engineering conference.
2. Eligibility -- Only one team per school will be allowed to compete. Each team shall designate a captain
who shall be the point of contact for the team. All team members must be enrolled students at the date of
the competition.
3. Design Report Submittal – Invitation to the National Competition will be based upon submittal and
ranking of the Design Report. The report must include:
a) Cover page with name of institution; names and status (graduate, undergraduate) of each team
member; identification of team captain with email address; and name, title, and email address of
faculty advisor;
b) Material properties used in design including methods (lab tests, correlations, assumptions) used
to obtain the properties;
c) Description of the engineering design and construction procedures including assumptions and
equations used;
d) Estimate of vertical deflection of frame;
e) Estimated mass of the hardwood structural frame; and
f) Safety appendix which outlines the potentially hazardous tasks reasonably expected during the
competition and how the team will mitigate these hazards.
Formatting requirements:
g) Length shall be a maximum of four (4) pages long (not including tables, figures, references,
cover page, or Safety appendix.
h) One inch margins, single spacing, and 12 point Times New Roman font.
i) All pages after the cover page shall contain a header identifying the team and footer with the
page number.
j) Entire paper must be submitted in a single pdf format file with a filename of
<School Abbreviation>_2017_SEI_Student_Competition.pdf.
A panel of practicing engineers and professors will judge design reports. Judging will consider
reasonableness of design equations, material properties, and assumptions. “Trial and error” designs will
be heavily penalized. The judging rubric is presented in Appendix A.
Complete Design Report must be submitted in PDF format via email to Dr. John Cleary,
(cleary@southalabama.edu) by 6:00 pm CST December 16, 2016. Subject line must include “2017 SEI
Student Competition Submittal.” Sender will receive confirmation of receipt by e-mail.
Due to server limitations, your design report should not exceed 10 Mb. If it does, consider reducing the
size of figures, particularly photographs. If this remains an issue, arrangements for uploading via Google
Drive can be arranged, but such arrangements must be made prior to the deadline stated above.

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4. Competition Selection – The top five (5) teams, based on the design reports, will be offered funding to
participate in the competition. Funding will consist of complementary student registration for Structures
Congress for up to three team members and a $1,200 travel stipend for the team.
5. Piles – Two vertical piles will be used to support your structural frame. The piles will be provided at the
competition. The 21-inch long piles will be fabricated out of 1-½˝ schedule 40 PVC pipe. Your structural
frame will be inserted into the piles prior to loading, see Figure 1.
6. Hardwood Structural Frame – The structural frame shall be made of modular pieces of hardwood so
that once assembled, it may be inserted into PVC piles. The structural frame must provide proper support
for a bucket for the purpose of applying a load to the frame. Figure 1 shows an example of the
structural frame. Figure 2 shows all dimensions. Note that Figures 1a and 2 show the required
dimensions of the structural frame only. Teams are encouraged to be creative in their frame design.
Frames could consist of braced frames, as shown in Figure 1b, trusses, etc.
The structural frame will meet the following requirements:
a) Be made of one or more species of hardwood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_woods).
b) Be comprised of smaller components that are assembled to make the overall structural frame.
c) When disassembled, each component must fit into a 2-inch by 2-inch by 12-inch prism.
d) Be assembled at the competition during timed construction without the use of metallic fasteners,
glue, or tape (i.e. no non-wooden fasteners).
e) Each component may be made of smaller pieces of hardwood that are glued together (prior to the
competition) to form the desired shape or function.
f) Provide proper support (1/2 inch diameter hardwood rod) for the loading bucket at specific
locations (Figure 2).
g) The lower approximately 21.5 inches of the structural frame (the portion that fits into the PVC
piles and 0.5 inch above the PVC piles) are to have a uniform external cross section (not
necessarily circular). The tightness or sloppiness of the fit into the PVC piles is at the discretion
of each team. The load frame must slip into the PVC piles during the Load Frame Assembly
stage. Deviations from the uniform cross section are permitted as required for making a
connection (such as installation of a peg to secure a joint).
h) Components are to connect to each other using joints that include, but are not limited to threads,
dovetail joints, mortise and tenon joints, slip joints, lap joints, pins. The intent is to reward
innovative designs and craftsmanship rather than be restrictive. However, each connection
should not be able to slip apart through tension, compression, or shear. This may require
additional parts, such as a wooden peg, to secure the connection.

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(a) (b)

Figure 1: Structural frame examples: a) 3D model of structural frame; b) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s
structural frame from the 2016 G-I/SEI Wall Competition.

Figure 2: Dimensions of hardwood structural frame, piles will be placed eight inches (on center) apart. Note:
the shape of this load frame is shown schematically only; teams are encouraged to be creative in their design.

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7. Execution – Construction and testing of the frame will be done in the following stages:
a) Structural Frame Assembly Stage – The team should have the components of their load frame
laid out along with the two S-hooks and the empty surcharge bucket. The Structural Frame
Assembly Stage is complete when the frame is assembled and installed into the PVC piles, and
the empty loading bucket is placed on the S-hooks.
b) Loading Stage – This stage occurs in two steps: 1) removal of “slack” from the system with a
preload and 2) loading of the frame. During the first step, a small load will be placed in the
bucket and the vertical deflection will be zeroed. During the second step, the full load will be
placed in the bucket and the frame will be checked for the deflection criteria (3/4 inch maximum
vertical deflection).
i. When directed by the judge, the team shall place the 5-lb bag of sand in the loading
bucket, the vertical deflection will then be zeroed.
ii. When directed by a judge, the team shall place 55 lbs of sand in the loading bucket
that is supported by the load frame. The team will have one (1) minute to place the
load. After the load is placed, the judge will wait one (1) minute and then check the
deflection of the load frame.

8. Scoring – After completion of the loading stage, the score for each team will be computed using the
following formula [Note: your score could be negative]:

Structural Score = 5000 – L – (P)(C) – 4 Mcomp – 25 Nmaj – 175 D – 500 F

where:
L = mass of the hardwood structural frame in grams;
P = number of people for the load frame assembly at any time during its assembly. This includes
any type of work sharing (one person does first half, another the second – still two people);
C = overall time for construction of the load frame in seconds;
Mcomp = total mass of component(s) not meeting specifications;
Nmaj = number of major deductions;
D = deflection rating (3/4 inch max vertical deflection as measured at the dowel rod);
3 if load frame fails deflection criterion during loading
0 if load frame passes deflection criterion
F = Failure rating (in addition to the appropriate deflection rating);
5 if load frame fails during initial preloading
3 if load frame fails during vertical loading
0 if load frame never fails catastrophically
Failure of the load frame is defined as either a catastrophic failure or such deflection that the
supported load is no longer supported by the piles alone (e.g., the bucket makes contact with the
floor).
a) Major Deductions
i) Load frame components slip apart from each other in shear, tension, or compression.
For example, if two adjacent components can be disassembled by tension alone, then
Nmaj,2 = 1 for these two component alone;
ii) Any rule violation that in the opinion of the judges has the potential to provide the team
with a significant advantage, but does not warrant disqualification.
b) Disqualification – Teams may be disqualified for the following:
i) Failure to send a representative to the pre-competition captains’ meeting;
ii) Structural frame does not disassemble;

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iii) Unsafe practices; and

iv) Design or construction techniques that violate the spirit of the competition and provide a
large and/or unfair advantage.
Structural Scoring Example: Assume a team constructs a frame with following characteristics
 The team’s frame has a total mass of 1359.2 grams
 One component did not fit into the prism. The mass of this one component is 78.5 grams, Mcomp
= 78.5
 During the assembly, one person did the majority of the work, but a second person was needed
for 15 seconds to align two components for assembly. The total time to assemble the frame
(from start to finish) was 63 seconds.
o P=2
o C = 63
 Each of the component connections could not be disassembled through shear, tension, or
compression alone, Nmaj = 0.
 The load frame passed deflection test, D = 0, F = 0

The structural score is

Structural Score = 5000 – 1359.2 – (2)(63) – 4(78.5) – 25 (0) – 175(0) – 500(0) = 3200.8
The judges will follow the rules as published using reasonable judgment and interpretation. The head
judge will be the arbiter of any disputes. Decisions of the head judge are final.
See Appendix C for scoring checklists.
9. Presentation – Each team will make a brief (5-10 minute) presentation about their design. The judges
expect the presentations to be professional and use some sort of visual aid such as PowerPoint, see
Appendix C for an example of the scoring sheet.

10. Overall Competition Score – The three components of the competition (design paper, structural testing,
and presentation) will be combined to determine the overall ranking of the teams. The relative weight of
each component is as follows: Design Paper – 30%, Structural Testing – 50%, Presentation – 20%. See
Appendix C, part C5 for scoring sheet.

11. Pre-Competition Team Captains’ Meeting – A team captains’ meeting will be held prior to the
competition for the purposes of: checking structural frames for compliance, establishing competition
order, gathering information, and disseminating any logistical or administrative information. This is a
MANDATORY meeting. Each team must have the team captain (or designee) present. All team
members are encouraged to attend. Specific meeting time and location will be announced before the
conference. Teams without a representative at the captains’ meeting will be disqualified.
Teams should bring structural frames to the team captains’ meeting and be prepared to assemble them to
check for compliance. Teams will have until one hour prior to the beginning of the competition to correct
any compliance issues identified during the captains’ meeting.

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Appendices
2017 SEI Student Competition Rules Version 2.0 August 26, 2016

Appendix A: Design Report Judging

Rubric
SEI Structural Student Competition – Design Report Scoring Form
Reviewer Guidelines:
1) Place weight on the team ability for engineering reasoning not technical knowledge
2) Place weight on team communication skills on procedures, findings and observations
3) Score in 0.5-point increments
4) Team to be awarded a higher score if verifying design parameters beyond assumptions and references
Criterion Max Actual Notes
1) Formatting, Mechanics, Grammar, & Safety
a. Paper length, margins & font are acceptable 2 Paper complies with specifications
Paper organization is clear and
b. Layout, or structure, of paper is logical 3
supports the message.
Error free paper with writing that
c. Grammar and punctuation are correct 5
clearly presents design.
d. Figures & tables are clear, properly numbered, captioned Good choice of tables vs. figures,
2
and referenced in the text clear presentation of data.
Quantity appropriate with correct
e. References are reasonably formatted and complete 2
citations and references
Clearly identifies key safety concerns
f. Safety appendix complete with reasonable controls 1 and provides viable plans to keep
team safe during competition.
2) Experimental Methods, Analyses, and Design:
a. Methods to obtain hardwood properties 5 Referenced or experimental
Discussed with attention to function
b. Detail to connections of modular components 5
and ease of assembly
Method and assumptions are
c. Evaluation of connection strength 5
reasonable
Model accounting for 3-D geometry
and misfit is reasonable and
d. Structural analysis of load frame 10
appropriate; prediction of deflections
is appropriate
3) Engineering Reasoning and Communication
The report is, on the whole, clear, precise, and well-reasoned.
Engineering terms and distinctions are used effectively and in Scores may range from 0 to 10. It is
keeping with established professional usage. The report the opinion of the reviewer as to how
demonstrates a clear and precise analysis of the structural the overall report measures up to the
10
frame design problem, very little or no irrelevant information criteria listed under item 3
is presented, key assumptions are identified, and key concepts "engineering reasoning and
are clarified. The authors have shown, through their report, communication".
excellent engineering reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Total 50
2017 SEI Student Competition Rules Version 2.0 August 26, 2016

Appendix B: Presentation Judging Rubric

SEI Structural Student Competition – Presentation Scoring Form
Reviewer Guidelines:
1) Place weight on the team ability for engineering reasoning not technical knowledge
2) Place weight on team communication skills on procedures, findings and observations
3) Score in 0.5-point increments
4) Team to be awarded a higher score if verifying design parameters beyond assumptions and references
Criterion Max Actual Notes
1) Format and Presentation
a. Length is appropriate 3 5-10 minutes
Does the order of the presentation
b. Information is presented in a logical sequence 4
make sense
Appropriate font size and color, not
c. Slides are well laid out and easy to read 4 too much writing, images are sized
properly
Quantity appropriate with correct
d. References are properly cited 2
citations and references
Eye contact, appropriate hand
e. Speakers interact with audience 4 gestures, speak to the audience (not
the screen)
Project voice, good pronunciation, no
f. Speakers use clear, audible voice 3
use of slang words
Did each team member speak
g. All team members participate 3
approximately the same amount
2) Experimental Methods, Analyses and Design:
a. Methods to obtain hardwood properties 4 Referenced or experimental
Discussed with attention to function
b. Detail to connections of modular components 4
and ease of assembly
Method and assumptions are
c. Evaluation of connection strength 3
reasonable
Model accounting for 3-D geometry
and misfit is reasonable and
d. Structural analysis of load frame 6
appropriate; prediction of deflections
is appropriate
3) Engineering Reasoning and Communication
The presentation is, on the whole, clear, precise, and well-
Scores may range from 0 to 10. It is
reasoned. Engineering terms and distinctions are used
the opinion of the reviewer as to how
effectively and in keeping with established professional
the overall report measures up to the
usage. The report demonstrates a clear and precise analysis of 10
criteria listed under item 3
the structural frame design problem, very little or no
"engineering reasoning and
irrelevant information is presented, key assumptions are
communication".
identified, and key concepts are clarified.
Total 50
2017 SEI Student Competition Rules Version 2.0 August 26, 2016

Appendix C: Judges’ Scoring Checklist

C1: Captains’ meeting—Box check
Team School: Deductions
Item Instruction Major
Load Frame
Materials  Constructed of hardwood
 No metallic or other reinforcement
Frame Dimensions  Eccentricity
 Height
 Width at bucket support
 Bucket support rod is ½ inch diameter
Components  Components fit into prism Mcomp = g
Full Assemblage  Components cannot be disassembled
with shear, tension, or compression of
joints alone
 No non-wooden fasteners Nmaj = g
Major Deductions, explain:
Disqualification, explain:
Total deductions
Notes:

C2: Load Frame Assembly

Item Instruction
Give start command. Time ends when the
Time load frame is assembled, installed in the C= sec
piles, and the bucket is in place
Persons # persons completing assemblage P=
Mass (g)
Mass Weigh components to nearest 0.1 g L=
Total mass of components that do not fit into the 2-inch by 2-inch by 12- Mass (g)
inch prism Mcomp =
Deductions from C1 # of components that can slip apart without
Nmaj =
pin or other being removed
Other, explain

Total deductions
Notes:
2017 SEI Student Competition Rules Version 2.0 August 26, 2016

C3: Loading
Team School:
Item Instruction
Stage 1:  Bucket with 5-lbs sand supported. Zero vertical deflection on dowel rod
Preload  Failure (frame breaks or bucket transmits load)  Pass  Fail F = 3
Stage 2:  Bucket preweighed with 55 lbs of sand should be ready.
Load Frame  At judge’s direction students add 55 lbs of sand to load bucket. Students have one
Loading minute to complete loading.
 Once load is placed start 1 min wait period
 At end of 1 min make following checks
 Check vertical deflection at end of load frame
 Pass  Fail D = 3
support (3/4 inch max).
 Failure (frame breaks or bucket transmits load)  Pass  Fail F = 3

C4: Raw Scoring

Structural Score = 5000 – L – (P)(C) – 4 Mcomp – 25 Nmaj – 175 D – 500 F

Item Score Weight Extended

Load frame mass, L (grams) 1
Number of people for assembly, P 1
Assembly time, C (sec) 1
Total mass of components not meeting specs, Mcomp (grams) 4
Total # of major deductions, Nmaj 25
Deflection rating, D
3 = Deflection exceeded during loading 175
0 = Deflection never exceeded
Failure rating, F
5 = Catastrophic failure at Stage 1
500
3 = Catastrophic failure at Stage 2
0 = No catastrophic failure
Structural Final Raw Score
Notes:
2017 SEI Student Competition Rules Version 2.0 August 26, 2016

C5: Final Scoring

Item Weight Quotient
Team Score on Design Paper

Highest Overall Design Paper Score

Value Weight Extension
Quotient from above: 30

Item Weight Quotient

Raw Structural Score

Highest Overall Raw Structural Score

Value Weight Extension
Quotient from above 50


Item Weight Quotient
Team Score on Presentation

Highest Overall Presentation Score

Value Weight Extension
Quotient from above 20


Total Score (sum of corrected scores)