OU Engineering Team Wins 2023 Asphalt Road-eo Competition

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From left: Luis G. Urbina Barrios, Joshua K. Cunningham, 
Ricardo D. Pena Ontiveros with mentor, Dr. Syed Ashik Ali



The Sooner Road Warriors team from the University of Oklahoma won the 2023 regional Asphalt Road-eo competition. Three undergraduate students from the Gallogly College of Engineering, representing the OU Chapter of the Transportation Leadership Council, competed with teams from universities in neighboring states.

Asphalt Road-eo is a team-based competition for undergraduate students, organized to gain design experience in asphalt materials in the form of an open-ended design problem. Organized by the Texas Asphalt Pavement Association, Texas Department of Transportation, and the University of Texas at Austin, the competition occurred April 15 in Buda, Texas. Nine teams from six different universities participated. The organizers provided each team with the same materials to design an asphalt mixture and prepare a 20-inch x 20-inch slab using this design. Performance of the slab was tested during the competition for friction (safety), rutting (durability), cracking (durability), and use of innovative materials (cost and sustainability). Members of each team presented their design and answered questions from a panel of ashphalt industry experts and judges and the TxDOT.

The Sooner Road Warriors team included Joshua K. Cunningham, team captain; Luis G. Urbina Barrios and Ricardo D. Pena Ontiveros; they were mentored by Syed Ashik Ali, postdoctoral research associate in the OU School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science. The team experimented with the use of Post-Consumer Recycled plastic in their asphalt mixture design to promote sustainability and environmental-friendly construction. The designed asphalt slab with recycled plastic exhibited outstanding performance in the rutting and cracking categories. The judges were impressed by the students’ knowledge of asphalt mix design. As the first place winning team, each member received a $2,000 scholarship.

Teams from the University of Texas at El Paso, representing the TLC Chapter at UTEP, placed second place and the University of Texas at San Antonio placed third. Previously, OU students placed in the top three in 2020 and 2018. The Oklahoma Asphalt Pavement Association provided financial and logistic support for the OU team.


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