UT Arlington Civil Engineering undergraduate students Brandon Price, Rachel Simer, Cameron Anderson, and Ashley Heid participated in the national FRC (fiber reinforced concrete) bowling ball competition held by ACI (American Concrete Institute) during the ACI Convention in Dallas on March 18. ACI Convention is one of the largest international conventions related to concrete materials, reinforced concrete structures, and concrete construction.

There were 36 university teams (including teams from foreign universities) for this competition and about 200 participants. The objective of this competition is to demonstrate the effect of fibers in reinforcing concrete, to gain experience in forming and fabricating a concrete element, and to encourage creativity in engineering design and analysis. The UTA team spent more than two months to develop the FRC materials and the fabrication process. The work was supervised by Dr. Shih-ho Chao and partially sponsored by the ACI Northeast Texas Chapter.