FAU Undergraduate Students Win 1st Place in Concrete Bowling Ball Competition

Students from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University won first place in the 2^nd Annual Concrete Bowling Ball Competition sponsored by the Florida Concrete & Products Association (FC&PA). The event was held in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, February 20, 2015.

The FAU team named “Team D-Lion” entered the competition with a bowling ball created from a measured mixture of slag, cement, natural Pozzolan and two sizes of steel fibers. After researching the requirements for the project and calculating different mixtures the team was able to successfully create two balls after the third attempt. The team was supervised by Madasamy Arockiasamy, Ph.D., P.E. professor in FAU’s department of civil, environmental and geomatics engineering.

"This competition was a great hands-on project for students to use critical thinking to figure out what was required to meet their objective," said Yan Yong, Ph.D., interim chair of the FAU department of civil, environmental and geomatics engineering.

The three-person team included civil engineering undergraduate students Natan De Leon and Kevin Menting; and ocean engineering undergraduate student Megan Matson.

The goal of the competition was to design and build a bowling ball from fiber reinforced concrete that will roll straight. Students learned how to select materials that meet the weight limits, strength and toughness of concrete, how to cast a round object and how to achieve uniform consolidation of the material to achieve a straight roll. Student’s presented posters detailing their design and casting research that was judged in five categories. The competition included 10 teams from universities from around the state of Florida.

De Leon won first place at the 2014 competition as a single member.