The ASCE 2015 Mid-Pacific Student Conference was held at University of California, Davis on April 3^rdand 4^th. Over four hundred students from fourteen universities took part in the conference, including students from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UNR, Laval University and Zhejiang University. Thirty-four students of Tongji University who participated in the conference were mainly from the School of Civil Engineering, as well as from the Schools of Environmental Science and Engineering, of Transportation Engineering, of Material Science and Engineering, of Design and Innovation and of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Altogether, they entered eight competitions including: the concrete canoe, the steel bridge, soil mechanics, water treatment, road traffic and engineering supervision. With its solid strength and great performance, the Tongji University team won second place in the total score after the host UC Davis. Students from Tongji University took first place in the water treatment competition, second place in the soil mechanics competition, second place in the engineering supervision competition, second place in the concrete canoe competition, third place in the men’s 200m rowing race and third place in research papers.

The concrete canoe competition was a highlight of the conference and one of the most popular activities. In the 2014 competition, the canoe was decorated with the theme of facial makeup in Beijing Opera, which was designed and made by students from Tongji; it received rave reviews. In order to display the Chinese culture, the theme of Tongji’s canoe of this year was a Phoenix, which is a bird that represents auspiciousness. It was jointly designed by more than fifty students. To set off the Phoenix logo, it was painted yellow and orange; the surface of the canoe was painted bright blue and the interior of the canoe red. The competition was held in Lake Natoma, a scenic park in California, USA. The Phoenix canoe immediately attracted the attention of the competitors and of the audience with its elegant oriental style and graceful shape as it appeared in the competition. It was the focus of the showcase section and received much praise from the audience. Then it passed the buoyancy test without difficulty and with a perfect performance. Then, finally, came the rowing race. The competition challenged the strength and endurance of the competitors, and therefore was a shortcoming of the Chinese in the past. However, after one year of high-insensitive training, students from Tongji had become confident. During the fierce race, they showed their high spirits and strength to the audience and to their rivals who were stronger than them. With cheering and applause from the audience, the students of Tongji entered the finals of the women’s and of the men’s 200m racing. Eventually, the men won the third place.

Translated by May Language Studio based upon

http://news.tongji.edu.cn/classid-10-newsid-46566-t-show.html