Grad student takes a top award in international steel contest

Civil engineering master's student won 2nd place in international cold-formed steel design competition 

Colin Van Niejenhuis, a Waterloo civil engineering master's student, captured second out of 55 entries in the 2013 International Student Competition on Cold-Formed Steel Design.

Hosted by the University of North Texas, the goal of the competition is to promote higher education in cold-formed steel structural design and encourage students to use creative thinking skills to solve engineering problems.

For the 2013 competition, students were asked to design an open section shape for an 8-inch deep,  25-ft. long flexural member that provides an adequate nominal bending strength and utilizes the least possible material. Entires were received from eight different institutions in Canada, China, Iran, Thailand, and the United States.

Van Niejenhuis and the first and third place winners both from Virginia Tech will have their designs exhibited at various conferences throughout 2014.