Friday Funny: How Is A Building Like A Bowling Ball?

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Bowling Ball Competition
Some of the entries in the competition weren’t quite up to the task. (Photo: ConcreteConstruction.net.)

Back in March 2014, the American Concrete Institute (ACI) announced the winners of a competition at the organization’s annual event. Sounds fairly mundane, right? What made this particular competition unusual was its theme: the Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (FCR) Bowling Ball Competition.

You may wonder how and why a building would have anything to do with a bowling ball, but the engineers out there will probably understand the relationship fairly quickly. You see, the objectives of this competition were to demonstrate the effect of fibers in reinforcing concrete, to gain experience in forming and fabricating a concrete element, and to encourage creativity in engineering design and analysis. Billed as “one of the livelier events at the spring ACI convention, the balls had to roll true and have high compressive strength.” (Source: ConcreteConstruction.net.)

The first, second, and third place teams in each category received cash awards of $750, $500, and $250, respectively. But best of all, they got to brag about building a better bowling ball.

And the winners were…

Performance Category

Bowling Ball Winners
First Place: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León: Elmy M. Cabello-Sekely, Bianca G. Esquivel-Alonso, Rolando D. Garcia-Gan, Mario Hernandez-Hernandez, Jose E. Ruiz-Bautista
Faculty Advisor – Dr. Alejandro Durán Herrera
Bowling Ball Competition
Second Place: Ryerson University. Faculty Advisor – Medhat Shehata
Mahmoud Al-Fayez, Osama Al-Mohammedi, Yousuf Faroqi, Mo`tasem Aljawhary, Shahid Quraishi
Bowling Ball Competition
Third Place: 3rd Place: Pittsburg State University
Faculty Advisor – Seth O’Brien
Blake Swaggerty, Storm Schnake, Lauren Bohannon

 

Presentation Category

Bowling Ball Competition
First Place: University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Faculty Advisor – Dr. Chris Carroll
Bliss Kelley, Michelle Campbell, Jeanne Switzer, Aimee Duhon
Bowling Ball Competition
Second Place: Ryerson University. Faculty Advisor – Medhat Shehata
Mahmoud Al-Fayez, Osama Al-Mohammedi, Yousuf Faroqi, Mo`tasem Aljawhary, Shahid Quraishi
Bowling Ball Competition
Third Place: New Jersey Institute of Technology: David Williams, Adrian Milewski, Eric Gedman, Michelle Neri
Faculty Advisor – Mohamed Mahgoub