I’ll take civil engineering for $2,000, please.
In a “Jeopardy!”-style competition, UF civil engineering students took first place at the Institute of Transportation Engineers Collegiate Traffic Bowl Grand Championship.
Teams from school ITE chapters throughout the United States and Canada gathered in Boston for a three-day international meeting. The championship match took place on Aug. 6.
Sixty-two teams started out the competition and were gradually reduced to three in the championship match.
UF graduate students Don Watson, Thomas Chase, Ben Reibach and Miguel Lugo beat teams from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville and Pennsylvania State University.
The competition featured questions ranging from transportation engineering to specific questions about meetings and committees.
Two of this year’s team members competed previously in the Florida team, and Chase won the championship last year with North Carolina State University.
“They kind of looked to me to tell them what kind of questions would be there, and to calm their nerves,” said Chase, a 25-year-old civil engineering graduate student.
Watson and Reibach competed at the district level in 2012 but lost to the University of South Florida.
Learning from their mistakes and with guidance from Chase, the team felt confident, said Watson, a 25-year-old civil engineering graduate student.
“We were happy that we won the Florida district but then the fact that we made it to the final round was like ‘Oh my gosh, this is crazy,’” Watson said.
In Final Jeopardy, they were able to comfortably wager just enough to beat University of Tennessee - Knoxville by one point.
“It was redemption to just get to Boston and win district, but winning there was a wonderful feeling,” said Reibach, a 25-year-old UF alumnus.
The team won $2,000 and plans to give a portion to the UF ITE chapter and split the rest among the team members.
“The victory is a testament to the strong transportation engineering program at UF and to the exceptional students that we have,” UF ITE chapter adviser Siva Srinivasan wrote in an email.
A version of this story ran on page 3 on 8/23/2013 under the headline "UF students win first place in traffic engineering championship"
