News

Cal Poly Civil Engineering Students Design LA Transportation of the Future

March 16, 2007

The Society of Civil Engineers (SCE) entered a winning design in the "City of the Future" challenge.

The contest was co-sponsored by IBM and The History Channel in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Civil Engineering students Derek Benedict from Auburn, CA, Karen Nishimoto from Stockton, CA, Anthony Henderson from San Luis Obispo, CA, and Christopher Pratt from Hesperia, CA, formed "SLOMobility" specifically for the contest. The group designed a transportation system for the Los Angeles of 2106.

As the winners of the contest, SLOMobility received a $5,000 award, and each member was given a brand new IBM Thinkpad.

SLOMobility spent more than six weeks working on the project, the focal point of which was the versatile interconnecting Archway system. The idea for the Archway was first brought to the drawing board by Benedict, the team’s captain. It was drawn and refined by Pratt, and final modifications were made by the remaining team members.

Pratt, who serves as the SCE vice president of community service, believes his engineering coursework prepared him well for the challenge. "My structural design and concrete courses helped me visualize and analyze the structure properly and efficiently," he said, "and my engineering knowledge allowed me to look at and break down the structure into manageable and simplified elements."

The SLOMobility transportation design fits into the larger Los Angeles of the future, as designed by Eric Owen Moss Architects, the overall contest winners.