Arizona State University

Recent Events at ASU

The Southwestern Patrons held their Fall planning meeting in October where 17 ASU CIM students received Scholastic Achievement Scholarships totaling $19,500 in awards.

The ACI-ASU Student Chapter, run by CIM students, participated in ASU’s Homecoming parade for the second time. Their float was sponsored by CEMEX and pulled by a concrete mixer truck. It was the hit of the parade!

The Junior and Senior CIM students have been busy taking various worksite and plant tours all semester. Their visits have included US Precast in Phoenix, Arizona Portland Cement in Rillito, CEMEX Plant in Scottsdale and a local high-rise jobsite.

US Precast Mixture Design Research

After making a site visit for the CIM305 Concrete Production course to the US Precast Operation in Phoenix, the ASU CIM program is discussing a potential collaboration with US Precast, where CIM students will perform both wet and dry sample concrete mixtures and test results. The hope is that we can help improve US Precast's product if the results of our test mixtures are desirable.

ACI Certification Assistance

The students in the CIM106 Fundamentals of Concrete course take the Grade I Concrete Field Testing Certification as part of the curriculum. Eight students successfully received certification this semester. Once the students are certified they are available to assist as supplemental examiners for classes taught through the Arizona Chapter of ACI when the monthly courses are offered to industry.

California State University - Chico

Chico State Announces New Patrons

During 2008, the number of patrons grew by six additional corporate patrons including Basalite Concrete Products, Mitsubishi Cement Corporation, Salt River Materials Group, Sierra Nevada Concrete Association, Jonel Engineering and the Calstone Company. This brings the total number of corporate members to 39 Patrons and Contributors. We also added three new Personal Patrons including Scott & Chantelle Perrine, Greg & Laura Odenthal, and Rick & Tina Nelson, bringing their Personal Patrons members up to 17. In addition, there are many other companies working directly with the University, donating time, materials and supplies to be used by our students on their projects and in the Concrete Lab.

Chico State also is pleased to report that their contributions/income for 2008 was $307,727, which was an increase of 9.1% over 2007. During this past year, they gifted $317,228 including:

• $150,000 for their original pledge that is used for salaries/benefits
• $39,900 for student scholarships
  
• $100,000 towards the Concrete Lab Improvement Project
  
• $26,700 for student travel to industry meetings and conventions
  
• $628 for promotion

All monies donated are gifted as continuing start up costs for this tremendous program.

CIM Program Grows to 54 Declared Majors

The Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program at California State University, Chico is growing. By the end of the fall 2008 semester, 54 students had declared CIM as their major, ahead of the projected 45 anticipated for the end of the upcoming spring semester. In addition to local California residents, new students have come from a variety of locations including North Dakota, Arizona, Tennessee, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Several of their students are benefiting from the Western University Exchange (WUE) program that offers greatly reduced tuition to students from 14 western states, including all of the Pacific Northwest. All CSU Chico CIM students who meet minimum requirements receive a scholarship from the Chico State CIM Patrons. These grants of $1,400 per student per year help the program grow and show students and potential students the importance of this program to our industry.

Local and National Patrons Gift $185,000 at Fall Meeting

Chico State hosted the CIM National Steering Committee (NSC) in October during the Chico State CIM Patron’s fall meeting. Donations of $50,000 from the NCS and $135,000 from the Chico State Patrons were made in support of the academic program and students. Patron support such as this has been indispensable in allowing the early establishment and continued record growth of the program. The direct benefit of these funds can be seen in the numbers of students who are attracted to the program because of the opportunities for industry involvement and quality, hands-on, industry-relevant coursework and internships.

Chico State Patrons Present Gift At March Meeting

The Patrons of the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) at California State University, Chico presented $159,500 to the University on March 18. University President Paul Zingg along with officers from the Chico State Patrons organization and CIM faculty were in attendance. During the past three years, the California State University (CSU), Chico Patrons, along with the CIM National Steering Committee, have presented checks in excess of $1,137,000 to the University. These funds directly support the CIM program at CSU in addition to providing scholarships for students participating in the program.

CIM Courses and Graduates

In May, the University will honor the first nine Chico State CIM graduates, several of whom already have tentative offers for full-time employment. After completing the Senior Capstone Project next semester, these students will receive the first CIM diplomas from Chico State.

New CIM courses offered last semester included Facilities Management and an elective course in Decorative Concrete, for which industry donated time and materials approached $23,000.

All CIM schools share a common core curriculum with new specialized topics being developed at individual institutions with the intent of making the new curriculum available to the other CIM schools. Chico is developing the lecture and lab curriculum for an in-depth Concrete Repair course and for the Decorative course. A future course entitled Seismic Considerations in Concrete is also planned.

The roster of Chico State CIM Patrons includes the complete range of concrete industry leadership in the West, including current and retired leaders from companies including Lehigh/Hanson, CEMEX, Teichert Materials, Cal/Nev Cement Assoc, Shamrock, Central/US Concrete, Livingston, Western R/M, Valley Rock, PROPEX, Granite Rock, NorCal RM Assoc, Vulcan Materials, CONCO, California Portland, Beaver’s Trust, Mitsubishi Cement, BASF, Knife River Materials, Nevada Cement, Sierra Nevada R/M Assoc, WR Grace, Quikrete, Salt River Materials, Basalite, Oldcastle, Calstone, Sika, and many other companies, associations, and individuals. Such comprehensive combined knowledge of industry accomplishments and challenges is invaluable in guiding program direction.

Middle Tennessee State University

MTSU Students to Attend Sales Professional Course

Ronnie Snyder and Kirk Harris – both students of the CIM Program at MTSU – have been selected to attend the Certified Concrete Sales Professional Course in Nashville. The CCSP training program is a state-of-the-art program for men and women in the ready mixed concrete industry. The students are being sponsored by the Tennessee Concrete Association and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) and will complete 4 modules (88 hours of instruction) including:

• Technical/Product Knowledge, Module I
  
• Customer Business Knowledge, Module II
  
• General Business Knowledge, Module III
  
• Professional Sales Skills, Module IV
  

The students were selected because they have over a 3.5 grade point average and are very involved in the CIM program at MTSU.

Student Research Projects at MTSU

CIM students at MTSU are very active with the following active and pending research projects:

Active Projects:

• Eastman Chemical Company – investigating new fiber produced from their manufacturing processes
  
• City of Murfreesboro and Belgard Pavers – testing water quality on a multi-use site using permeable pavers
  
• Durafiber, Inc. – dispersion and cracking round robin testing
  
• ASTM C09.49 – pervious concrete precision and bias testing for new methods
  

Pending Projects:

• NSF PFI Grant Submittal with University of Tennessee – Knoxville, Virginia Tech and Oak Ridge looking at sustainable practices for concrete and asphalt roads
  
• XUREX, Inc. – collaborating with DOT, bridge contractor and manufacturer to determine advantages of next generation penetrant sealant for bridge decks
  
• H.C. Spinks Clay – assisting with testing of new metakaolin source
  

Frank Bronstein Honored

On October 8, 2008, MTSU held a retirement dinner for Frank Bronstein, Executive Director of Florida Independent Concrete and Associated Products, Inc. (FICAP). At the dinner, a presentation was made of a rendering of the “Bronstein Room” which is a meeting room that will be named in his honor sponsored by a donation from FICAP. Mr. Bronstein served on the MTSU CIM Patrons Board from 1996-2006 and is now serving as ex-officio.

New Jersey Institute of Technology

A Note from NJIT CIM Program Director, Professor John A. Wiggins, PE

Spring is barely upon us and with the advent of spring comes the end of the academic year and commencement. Personally, I have always found that the spring semester flies by while the fall semester always seems to take forever. During these past few weeks my time has been spent reviewing resumes, interviewing prospective applicants and making recommendations for those applicants. Additionally, some time was spent traveling to the World of Concrete (more on that below) in addition to my regular duties of teaching and student advisement.

This spring, we expect to graduate one more person in the CIM program and, looking forward to the fall, we expect to step up our recruitment activities over the summer as well as continue those efforts through the fall semester with the hope of constantly increasing the enrollment of the program. These recruitment efforts will include high schools, magnet schools, county colleges and industries within our geographical area. In these days of a tight economy, it appears that more students are considering state universities as an educational choice and this should hopefully bode well for NJIT in general and for the CIM Program in particular.

Wine Tasting Event A Success…… Again!

The highlight of our local fundraising effort is the annual wine tasting event held at Valbella. This year the event was held on Saturday, February 21 and from all reports was a great success in the quality of the evening as well as the funds raised to support the program.

This year’s event drew a crowd of over 70 persons to a night of epicurean delights and great wine. In the process, $40,000 was raised to support the CIM program at NJIT. Congratulations to Larry Silvi for chairing this very successful activity which has drawn national attention.

NJIT Patron’s Meeting Held

Our most recent Patrons’ meeting was held at the Philadelphia Sheraton on January 16, 2009. At that meeting, the Patrons were apprised of the program’s progress, finances and upcoming events. Specifically, this included the final academic approvals for the entire CIM curriculum as well as the continued efforts for recruitment of staffing at NJIT.

NJIT Calendar of Events

• April 8, 2009 - Industrial Advisory Committee Meeting at NJIT
• April 23 - 24, 2009 - Construction Industry Career Day, Brookdale Community College
• April 24, 2009 - Social Event, NJIT, Silivi Concrete
• April 29, 2009 - Annual Board of Directors Meeting, MTSU
• May 2009 - Regional Board of Director’s Meeting - (Tentative Date - Exact Date, Location to be provided)
  
• May 16, 2009 - NJIT Commencement- Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
  
• July 1, 2009 - Newsletter
  
• September 22, 2009 - Social Event, NJIT - (Tentative Date - Exact Date, Location to be provided)
  
• October 1, 2009 - Newsletter
  
• October 2009 - Regional Board of Director’s Meeting - (Tentative Date - Exact Date, Location to be provided)
  
• October 2009 - National Board of Director’s Meeting, - (Tentative Date - Exact Date, Location to be provided)
  
• January 1, 2010 - Newsletter
  

Texas State University - San Marcos

CIM Program Officially Underway!

The CIM program was approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in October 2008 and student registration for the CIM major has begun. TSU expects their first majors to come from the ranks of TSU students who are currently Construction Science and Management majors as well as other undecided majors in the department. The following technical courses that are required of CIM majors are being taught this spring:

• Introduction to Construction and Concrete Industry (36 enrolled)
  
• Construction Materials and Processes (46 enrolled)
  
• Fundamentals of Architecture Problem Solving and Design (67 enrolled)
  

TSU Announces New Faculty and Personnel for CIM Program

Jiong “John” Hu joined the CIM staff in July 2008 as Assistant Professor. Hu received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 2005 in Geotechnical and Materials Engineering. Soon-Jae “Jeff” Lee also joined the CIM program in 2008. He received his Ph.D. in 2007 from Clemson University in Civil Engineering.

Eric John Merrill joined TSU as a Construction Materials Technician in 2008. Previously, Merrill worked at the Texas Department of Transportation as a Pavement Specialist.