Students from the newly formed Cal Poly Pomona ACI Student Chapter participated in the 2023 FRP Composites Competition at the Fall ’23 ACI Convention in Boston.  Students Newton Chew, Riley Garcia, Itzel Sanchez, Miguel Souza, Charles Tran, and Michelle Vien made the trip to along with their advisor, Dragos Andrei.  Under Mr. Andrei’s guidance, the team worked together to design and construct a concrete beam reinforced with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement. Per the competition rules, the beam was to fit into a 7.87” x 7.97” x 39.4” long box and have a total weight ranging between 11.0-33.1 pounds.

After testing a variety of design mixes using the materials available in the lab the team worked through the challenges of producing a mix for lightweight concrete. With the generous donation from Arcosa Lightweight, they were able to use lightweight aggregate in the final design mix. Their concrete beam turned out to be ultra-light with an impressive weight of 28 pounds. The ultimate strength tested for the beam on competition day was 13,901N. Overall, the Cal Poly Pomona ACI Student Chapter placed 19th out of the 37 schools who competed.

As a brand new and recently initiated student chapter, the ACI SoCal Chapter is proud of their efforts representing the SoCal region and Cal Poly Pomona at this year’s 2023 ACI Concrete Convention in Boston, MA. Their goal was to compete, to qualify, and to learn from one another during this experience – success all around.

In conjunction with the competition, students also attended technical sessions and workshops that were both educational and enlightening throughout the convention. The team would like to express their thanks to the community of talented and diverse individuals in the concrete industry who have a passion for advancing concrete technology to the next level. The chapter looks forward to continued participation in future ACI events and applying the lessons learned in this year’s competition.