We sat down with two of ACI UPRM’s representatives—Andrés Matos, team captain, and Christian Soto, spokesperson—to talk about ACI UPRM’s triumph at the American Concrete Institute’s annual concrete competition and the future of civil engineering at UPRM and in Puerto Rico.
Full Names:
Andrés Matos Ortiz (AM), 23
Christian Soto Torres (CS), 21
Hometowns:
AM: San Juan
CS: Mayagüez
Major and Academic Years:
AM: Civil Engineering, sixth year (“What’s important is that we have our health.”)
CS: Civil Engineering, fifth year
Expected graduation date:
AM & CS: May 2017
All ten members of the ACI UPRM teams pose with their awards in Denver, Colorado. Christian Soto is pictured in the far left, and Andrés Matos, far right. Other members include Silvia Esteves, Nahima Ortiz, Yasser Ortiz, Karimar Serrano, Maribel Turner, Gabriel Díaz, Wilfredo Guilloty, and Ninoshka Crespo.
Tell us about ACI UPRM:
AM: ACI (the American Concrete Institute) is an organization that is open to all types of engineering, although it focuses on the use of concrete. ACI RUM’s goal is to offer students the necessary tools to develop their skills in the manufacture and research of concrete and specialized concretes, such as pervious concrete.
In addition, the ACI also hosts a series of competitions every semester. Even though they are open to all types of engineering majors, this year the UPRM team consisted of only Civil Engineering students. This was the first time UPRM had participated in an ACI competition in four years.
CS: Every year, the professional ACI, which consists of companies and members of the industry, hosts a convention in different states and countries. During that convention they establish which will be the topic of the student’s competition. This semester’s competition, which was held in November, was about pervious concrete. Next semester’s competition, which will be in March or April, will consist in developing a bowling ball made of lightweight concrete.
What is pervious concrete?
AM: Pervious concrete allows water and other fluids, like gases, to pass through it. For purposes of the competition, we used water. It is mostly used in pavements, sidewalks, parking spaces, or any place where water could be accumulated to the point it could flood. This concrete is composed of different strata [or layers, for all us non-STEM folk] like rocks and sand, that allows liquids to be filtered through.
When and how did you get involved in this organization?
AM: I have always been interested in the study of concrete—in fact, I’ve done research on it before. For a long time, I’ve wanted to participate on some sort of competition related to concrete. So I contacted Professor Arsenio Cáceres, the advisor of ACI UPRM, and he informed me that the American Concrete Institute in fact had a chapter at UPRM, but it was inactive. And so I, along with other classmates, settled on the task of assembling the chapter back together. However, I had never worked with pervious concrete. In fact, no one on the team had ever worked with pervious concrete. Luckily, Professor Cáceres does have vast knowledge in the field of specialized concretes.
CS: When we assembled the team back in May, no one knew what pervious concrete even was. We even had to start investigating and reading past research in order to know how to use a pervious concrete mixer.
AM: This was like that one scene in The Avengers where Agent Maria Hill asks Tony Stark when he became an expert on astrophysics: we became experts on this overnight.
Why did this experiment spark your interest?
AM: Well, since the parameters of the competition were already established, we didn’t have much of a choice even though none of us had any experience working with pervious concrete. So we were faced with a surprisingly un-difficult decision: either we quit, or we try and metemos mano like the Colegiales we are.
We essentially worked by trial and error, mixing material until we got it right. Professor Cáceres did help us a lot with research, but he did it in a way that we figured the experiment out by ourselves.
When did you finish it?
CS: Well, if we left for Denver on November 7, then that means we finished the night before, on November 6.
AM: Well, we actually finished producing the cylinders about two weeks before to allow them to settle and in order to ship them to Denver. But we finished the report the night before.
What did the experiment consist of?
AM: For purposes of the competition, we had to arrive with our concrete cylinder already assembled. The mold we used is a standard size, about 4 inches in diameter and 8 inches in height. One of the competitions consisted of cutting one inch from each side of the cylinder, so that way it was 4 inches in diameter and 6 in height. Then, the cylinder’s tension capacity would be measured by using the Brazilian method; this consisted in applying pressure on the cylinder from both sides until it burst.
Then the permeability of the cylinder would be measured by counting the amount of time if would take for a stream of water to pass through it. The trick lies in the amount of empty spaces in the concrete. An average wall, for example, has about 1-2% empty spaces in it. However, pervious concrete has at least 13% of empty spaces in it. The success of these concretes depends on its resistance even though it has empty spaces, and the amount of liquid that can pass through it.
Tell us about the competition
AM: We won first and second place because, based on a technicality, UPRM was represented by two teams: UPRM-P and UPRM-C. ACI-UPRM has ten team members. However, ACI only allows teams of five members each. So, to avoid conflict and unfriendly competition among ACI-UPRM members, all ten teammates worked on the experiment together but split in half in order to represent Colegio; each team presented two different cylinders, which meant that ACI-UPRM as a whole produced four different cylinders for this competition.
CS: Upon registration, the judges pick one of two cylinders from each team based on its weight, height, and overall size. First, the chosen cylinder is subjected to the permeability test. Once that has been completed, the judges proceed by executing the resistance and tension tests. The other cylinder is used to analyze the composition and to make sure all guidelines were followed. Each team is given a score based on a scale of 100 percent: the cylinder’s resitance and permeability are worth 40 percent each, and the report is worth 20 percent of the overall score. UPRM Team C won first place; UPRM-P won second place.
What went through your mind when you won?
CS: Well we, along with all the teams from the schools around the world, were at the student lunch which was held on Monday, November 9, a day after the competition. After the meal, the winners would be announced. First they announced the third place winner, Valparaíso University in California. I was a little disappointed because I thought that if we didn’t win third place, then we definitely wouldn’t win anything. When they called out their name, I thought for sure that we would go home empty handed.
AM: Then when they announced the second place winner, UPRM-P, they actually had to say our name twice. We saw our picture on the screen and we thought they were just mentioning the teams that participated, and my first thought was “Oh, that’s nice, they’re including our picture!” When it was clear we had won second place, we were shocked. We started yelling, and we darted towards the stage to get our award. We were so proud!
And what happened when they announced the first place winner?
AM: Well we were still near the stage, so we saw that they had posted to picture of UPRM-C and, again, we naively thought they were just showing pictures of the wrong UPRM team. And when realized that, in fact, UPRM-C had one first place, we ran back to the stage.
CS: The way I remember it, we hadn’t even made our way to out table when they announced our name again. Y quedé mal.
AM: We couldn’t believe it.
CS: Even when we won second place, I already felt satisfied because I knew we wouldn’t come home empty handed. We were out of ourselves with both prizes.
UPRM-C won first place in the category of cementious efficiency.
How did you celebrate?
AM & CS: *chuckle*
AM: Well we were very tired, so we just all got together with our professors for dinner, which we were going to do whether we won or not. Originally it was going to be a meeting to figure out what we could do best next year and how we could help future teams, but it ended becoming an opportunity for celebration.
What are your goals for ACI UPRM?
AM: For now we want to focus on assembling the next team, which would develop a bowling ball made of concrete. But before we do that, we’re taking our time assembling reports and gifts for our sponsors. In the long term, we want this association to be a key in the development of special concretes in the University and for it to become a link with the professional community.
Why do you think the study of concrete is important?
AM: Generally speaking, wherever you stand on, whatever you stand on, is made of concrete—especially in a seismically active area like Puerto Rico, which is also prone to hurricanes and other forms of extreme climate.
CS: And while some may not like this, and it’s even the cause of dispute among engineers, the fact is that almost everything is made of concrete.
AM: As future engineers, it is our duty to find ways to make sure that the concrete we produce impacts the environment as little as possible. This is why our research with pervious concrete was so important and interesting. For example, if you use traditional concrete to cover a surface and then remove it to use the area for something else, it may take five to six years for the soil to recover. With pervious concrete, it may just take less than one year.
CS: On another note, the category we won was for cementitious efficiency, which means that we achieved high levels of tension and permeability using as little concrete as possible. We did this by replacing cement with renewable waste such as fly ash, silica fumes, and slag cement.
How do you think research about pervious concrete could impact Puerto Rico?
AM: I think pervious concrete particularly could be very useful in Puerto Rico. For example, perhaps you are familiar with when área blanca turns into an Olympic pool after heavy rainfall, but this type of concrete could help prevent flooding and landslides caused by heavy rainfall. Instead of fighting against the Islands’ perennially tropical weather, by using pervious concrete water could flow easily and cause as least damage possible. By changing the design, infrastructure, and construction of buildings and roads to include pervious concrete, the quality of life of Puerto Ricans could change for the better. Civil engineers are the ones who work with people the most. We are responsible for the houses they live in, the buildings they work in, the laboratories they research in.
If you are an engineering student and are interested in being part of ACI UPRM, make sure to check out their Facebook page. They are currently interviewing candidates for their new team!