Student Competitions

Student Competitions Flyer

Granular Materials Technical Committee


The Granular Materials Technical Committee of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) is pleased to announce a competition open to all students participating in the granular materials mini-symposia of the EMI Enigineering Mechanics Institute Conference in San Diego, California, June 4-7. The award is being sponsored by the Granular Science Laboratory at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The prizes are as follows: 1st Place - $300; 2nd Place - $125; 3rd Place - $75

Students who wish to be considered for the awards must:

  • Be an author or co-author of a submitted and accepted abstract in either of the Mini-symposia (MS-71) “Degradation and Healing in Particulate Systems” or (MS-72) “Recent Trends in Granular Materials Across the Scales”
  • Register and attend the conference
  • Submit an application cover letter expressing an interest in being considered for the competition.
  • Submit a one-page CV that includes at a minimum the current institution in which the student is pursuing a PhD, a summary of research activities relevant to the symposium, and a list of papers in peer-reviewed journals (either published or submitted).

Applicants must send the cover letter and CV via e-mail as a single pdf to Prof. Anthony Rosato (rosato@njit.edu) no later than March 20, 2017. Award decisions by a panel of judges will be based on the technical content of the work, as well as the clarity, quality of the oral presentation made by the student.


EMI Structural Health Monitoring and Control Committee Student Competition

Sponsored by: EMI Structural Health Monitoring and Control Committee


The SHMC Committee is pleased to announce a student paper competition in the areas of structural health monitoring, system identification, smart materials and structures, and structural control. Students whose abstracts in these thematic areas are accepted to the conference will be considered for this paper competition.

To be eligible for the competition, a participant must:

  • Submit an abstract in the areas of structural health monitoring, system identification, smart materials and structures, and structural control through the conference paper management system.
  • Forward the abstract acceptance notification and express interest in the competition to Dr. Lauren Linderman (llinderm@umn.edu) by February 15, 2017.
  • Submit a four page full paper to the competition organizing committee. Email to Dr. Lauren Linderman (llinderm@umn.edu) by April 1, 2017. Dr. Linderman will send the student participants a template for the papers by February 20, 2017.
  • Be a student at the time of submission.
  • Present the paper at the conference and must be the principal author of the paper.

The submitted papers will be evaluated by a panel of three expert judges. The top four or five papers will be selected for presentation in a special session at the EMI conference, which will be in addition to the regular presentation within the conference. Up to three winners will be selected and each receive an EMI certificate.


EMI Modeling Inelasticity & Multiscale Behavior (MIMB) Committee Student Competition

Sponsored by: EMI Modeling Inelasticity & Multiscale Behavior (MIMB) Committee


The EMI Modeling Inelasticity & Multiscale Behavior Committee is pleased to announce the Third Annual Student Paper Competition. The Competition is open to any student author of an EMI Conference contribution, applying modeling and simulation approaches to inelastic behavior of engineering materials. Students whose abstracts in this thematic area have been accepted by the Conference are eligible to compete.

In order to be considered, students must:

  • Submit an abstract to be considered for oral presentation in the Conference (in any of the Conference Mini-Symposia). Abstracts should be submitted by the Conference deadline.
  • Express interest in participating in the Competition and forward the abstract acceptance notification by emailing Professor Caglar Oskay (caglar.oskay@vanderbilt.edu) by March 1, 2017.
  • Submit a paper (maximum page limit is 4) for the Competition by April 1, 2017. Dr. Oskay will send the student participants a template for the papers.

The top five papers will be selected for presentation in a special session of the Conference in front of a panel of judges, after which up to three winners will be selected for receipt of a cash prize and a certificate. Note that this will be an additional presentation to the oral presentation the students will give as part of the regular EMI Conference (in the Mini-Symposium they submitted their abstracts to). After their initial expression of interest, Dr. Oskay will contact the students for further instructions. Please forward all questions related to this Competition to Dr. Oskay at caglar.oskay@vanderbilt.edu.


EMI Objective Resilience Committee Student Competition (ORC-SC) 2017

Sponsored by: EMI Objective Resilience Committee (ORC)

Submittal Deadline: March 15, 2017


The Objective Resilience Committee of ASCE-EMI is pleased to announce the inaugural annual Student Paper Competition in Objective Resilience. The competition is open to any student author of a paper in the thematic area of Objective Resilience. Students whose abstracts in this thematic area are accepted for presentation at the EMI 2017 conference will be considered for this paper competition.
To be eligible for the competition, a participant must:

  • Submit an abstract in the thematic area of objective resilience through the conference paper management system to the track of their choice by the conference deadline.
  • Forward the abstract acceptance notification and express interest in the competition to Dr. Mohammed Ettouney (ettouney@ettouney.com) within one week of the abstract acceptance notice.
  • Submit a four-page full paper to the competition organizing committee (email to Dr. Mohammed Ettouney (ettouney@ettouney.com) by March 15, 2017.
  • Be a student at the time of submission.
  • Present the paper at the conference and must be the principal author of the paper.

The submitted papers will be evaluated by a panel of five judges. The top three winning papers will:

  • Be selected for presentation in a special session at the EMI conference, in addition to the regular presentation within the conference;
  • Have a financial award of $500.00, $300.00, and $200.00 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd winners, respectively. (Co-authoring students will share the monetary prize. Only student authors are eligible for monetary prizes);
  • Receive EMI certificates.

A letter of commendation shall be sent to the winner and department head, as appropriate. Financial prizes are donated to ORC-SC by private entities. Funds for the 2017 prizes were donated by an anonymous donor.


EMI 2017 Student Paper Competition

Sponsored by: EMI Probabilistic Methods Committee


The Probabilistic Methods Committee of ASCE/EMI is pleased to announce the Eighth Annual Student Paper Competition in Probabilistic Methods. The competition is open to any student author of a contribution to the EMI 2017 conference applying probabilistic methods to problems in engineering mechanics. Students whose abstracts in this thematic area have been accepted by the Conference are eligible to compete. Students need to be the first authors of the contribution.

In order to be considered, students must:

  • Submit an abstract to be considered for oral presentation in the Conference (in any of the Conference Mini-Symposia). Abstracts should be submitted by the Conference deadline (January 1st).
  • Express interest in participating in the Competition by emailing Professor Alexandros Taflanidis (a.taflanidis@nd.edu) by January 20, 2017.
  • Forward their abstract acceptance notification to Dr. Taflanidis (when provided to them by the conference organizers).
  • Submit a paper (maximum page limit = 4) for the Competition, tentatively by March 15, 2017. Dr. Taflanidis will send the student participants a template for the paper by February 1, 2017.

The top five papers will be selected for presentation in a special session of the Conference in front of a panel of three judges, after which up to three winners will be selected for receipt of a cash prize and a certificate. Note that this will be an additional presentation to the oral presentation the students will give as part of the regular EMI Conference (in the Mini-Symposium they submitted their abstracts to). After their initial expression of interest, Dr. Taflanidis will contact the student for further instructions.

Please forward all questions related to this Competition to Dr. Taflanidis at a.taflanidis@nd.edu


EMI 2017 Student Paper Competition

Sponsored by the EMI Dynamics Committee.


The Dynamics Committee of ASCE-EMI is pleased to announce the 4th Annual Student Paper Competition in Dynamics. The competition is open to any student author of a paper in the thematic area of Dynamics. Students whose abstracts in this thematic area are accepted to the conference will be considered for this paper competition.
To be eligible for the competition, a participant should:

  • Submit an abstract in the thematic area of Dynamics through the conference paper management system to the track of their choice by the conference deadline.
  • Send an email expressing interest in the competition to Professor Siu-Kui Au (siukuiau@liverpool.ac.uk) by 20 January 2017.
  • Forward the abstract acceptance notification within one week of receipt from organizer.
  • Submit by email the pdf file of full paper (up to four pages, template to be provided) to the Chair of Judge Panel, Professor Siu-Kui Au (siukuiau@liverpool.ac.uk), by 15 March 2017.
  • Be a student at the time of submission.
  • Present the paper at the conference and be the first author of the paper.

The submitted papers will be evaluated by a panel of expert judges. Up to five papers will be selected for presentation in a special session at the EMI conference, which will be in addition to the regular presentation within the conference. Up to three winners will receive an EMI certificate and a cash prize.


EMI Computational Mechanics Committee Student Poster Competition

Sponsored by: EMI Computational Mechanics Committee


The Computational Mechanics Committee of ASCE-EMI is pleased to announce its Annual Student Poster Competition in Computational Mechanics. The competition is open to any student applicant in the broad area of Computational Mechanics.

To apply for this Competition, a participant must:

  • Submit an abstract in the thematic area of Computational Mechanics at the conference website by the conference deadline.
  • Forward the abstract acceptance notification and express interest in the Competition to Professor Ertugrul Taciroglu (etacir@ucla.edu ) by January 31, 2017.
  • Submit a poster to the organizing committee via email to Professor Taciroglu, etacir@ucla.edu by March 15, 2017 (PDF file, 4ft high, 3 ft wide).
  • Be a student at the time of submission and the principal developer of the poster.
  • Not submit the poster (and its affiliated abstract) to any other student competition within the EMI conference.
  • Present the poster at the Conference.
The submitted posters will be evaluated by a panel of expert judges, who will also interview the applicants at the designated poster sessions during the Conference. The winner and several runners-up will receive an EMI certificate and various prizes.