ASCE students from Carroll, Tech to host conference April 9

Carroll College and Montana Tech student chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will co-host the 2005 Pacific Northwest Regional conference and concrete canoe races, Saturday, April 9, in Helena at No Wake Lake.

The all-all day event will last from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The public is welcome to attend free of charge.

Almost 200 ASCE student chapter members at colleges throughout the Pacific Northwest attend the annual ASCE regional conference each year.

This year is the first time the Carroll ASCE chapter has hosted any part of the regional conference.

Some 15 colleges will attend the conference and participate in the concrete canoe races.

The concrete canoe contest requires student teams to design and construct a canoe made from a concrete mix. Competitors must develop a concrete mix design, write a design paper, keep track of all efforts in a design journal and present their design at the conference.

The initial phase of the race is a "swamp test," requiring students to fill their craft with water and demonstrate to the judges that the boats will float.

Those passing the flotation test will then participate in sprint and endurance races with student sailors paddling their canoes.

Carroll College students compete in mathematical contest

Four Carroll teams faced off against over 600 teams from around the world recently in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

Students John Fowler of Molt, Kyle Nixon of Helena and Sheena Strohmayer of Butte achieved a meritorious ranking that placed them in the top 15 percent of all competitors.

The team of Shane Garrick of Missoula, Anthony Rasca of Salem, Ore., and Ying Zhu, an exchange student from China, achieved an honorable mention, putting them in the top 40 percent.

Two other Carroll groups -- the team of Jeffrey Larson of Rapid City, S.D., John Riggs of Spokane, Wash., and Pablo VanWoerkom of Helena, and the team of Pam Bennett of Helena, Seth DeLong of Westwood, Calif., and Ben Dunham of Clancy --were ranked successful.

Of Carroll's two teams competing in the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling, Jeremy Deter of Helena, George Metzger of Great Falls and Jeff Michelson of Gig Harbor, Wash., earned ed an honorable mention.

The team of Alaina Garcia of Bozeman, Greg Ray of Tacoma, and Joshua Sykes of Helena were ranked successful.

The students' majors include math, civil engineering, chemistry, biology, computer science and accounting.

Problems presented in the contest were all based around real-world situations and dilemmas. A sample of the problems the students tackled is available on the Internet at http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/contests/2005/problems/>.

The International Interdisciplinary and Mathematical Contests in Modeling are sponsored by the National Security Agency and the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications.

Pennies for Peace fund-raiser continues through April

In collaboration with the Montana Library Association, Carroll's Corette Library will be sponsoring a Pennies for Peace fund- raiser to fund a school or library in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

The project will continue through the end of the month. Donations can be made at the Corette Library's circulation desk.

All funds raised by Pennies for Peace will be donated to the Bozeman-based Central Asia Institute, which has built 48 schools, and supported 550 teachers in educating more than 20,000 children.

The Central Asia Institute was founded by Mountaineer Greg Mortenson of Bozeman after his failed attempt to summit the world's second highest peak, K2. The summit attempt brought him to a small Pakistan village to recover his health.

The lack of education opportunities available to children moved Mortenson to repay the villagers' kindness by building schools throughout the region.