Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) members flocked in great numbers to Tampa, Fla., for the 2023 PCI Committee Days conference, October 4-8. Attendance of 627 was the highest in the last 10 years. In addition to conducting their important business at council and committee meetings, hundreds of attendees rock-and-rolled at the PCI Foundation Fundraiser Reception on October 5 to raise money for future precast concrete industry leaders. 

“This was the first time PCI Committee Days was held outside the Chicago area. Having the event in Tampa turned out to be a fantastic success,” said PCI President and CEO Bob Risser. “I received many compliments from members. PCI committees are busier and more productive than ever, and there was a lot of excitement about PCI. Thank you to the many members and PCI who made the event so successful.”

PCI honored many industry leaders at the PCI Memberships Awards Luncheon on October 5.

• Gary Wildung was presented the T. Henry Clark Award to recognize his decades of service to PCI and the precast concrete industry. Wildung is co-founder of FDG Inc., a precast concrete engineering and drafting company based in Arvada, Colo. Since retiring from FDG in 2018, he has continued to serve as the FDG-PCI liaison. Click here to see the award video.
• The Leslie D. Martin Certificate of Merit Award recognizes a PCI-published document judged to be technically outstanding and worthy of special commendation in advancing precast, prestressed concrete. The award was presented for the paper, Guidelines for the Use of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) in Precast and Prestressed Concrete by the PCI Concrete Materials Technology Committee. Committee members are: Kyle Riding (Chair), PhD, PE, FACI; Neal Anderson, PE, SE, FACI, FPCI; JP Binard, PE; Amir Bonakdar, PhD, PE; Marc Boudreau; Mi Geum Chorzepa, PhD, PE; Fouad Fouad, PhD, PE, FACI, FASCE; Mostafa Gad Alla; Brett Harris; Venkatesh Iyer, PhD, PE; John Lawler, PhD, PE; Lee Lawrence, PE, FPCI; Richard Miller, PhD, PE, FPCI; Ghulam Mujtaba, PE; Charles Nmai, PhD, PE, FACI; Steven Qualls, PE; Paul Ramsburg, FPCI; Henry Russell, PhD, SE, FACI, FPCI; Cameron West, PE, and Miloslav Zeman, PhD. Researchers: Elizabeth Wagner, PhD, and Maher Tadros, PhD.
• The Martin P. Korn Award recognizes authors of outstanding papers published in the PCI Journal during the previous year. This year’s award is presented to Donghyuk Jung, PhD; Thomas H.-K. Kang, PhD, PE; Dong Joo Lee, MS; Sanghee Kim, PhD; and James LaFave, PhD, PE, for their paper, “Seismic Performance of a Ductile Rod Exterior Connection System for Precast Concrete Industrial Buildings,” published in the January-February 2023 PCI Journal.

• The Robert J. Lyman Award honors papers dealing with construction, production, and/or erection of precast concrete. The award is presented to Matthew Bolduc, PhD, PE; Bahram Shahrooz, PhD, FACI, FASCE, FSEI, PE; Kent Harries, PhD, PEng, FASCE, FACI, FIIFC; Richard Miller, PhD, FPCI, PE; Henry Russell, PhD, PE; and William Potter, PE, for their paper, “Experimental Background behind New AASHTO LRFD Specifications for Partially Debonded Strands,” published in the March-April 2023 PCI Journal.

• The George D. Nasser Award is given to young authors for the best design, research, or state-of-the-art paper on precast concrete in the PCI Journal. This year’s award is presented to Hannah Kessler, MS; Kaitlynn Conway, PhD; Laura Redmond, PhD; and Garrett Pataky, PhD, for their paper, “Design and Cyclic Testing of a Gusset Plate Connection for Precast Concrete Buckling-Restrained Braced Frames,” in the March-April 2023 PCI Journal.
• The Charles C. Zollman Award honors authors of the best transportation infrastructure paper in the PCI Journal. This year’s winners are Nabil Grace, PhD, PE, FESD; Mohamed Mohamed, PhD, PE; and Mena Bebawy, PhD, PE, for their paper, “Evaluating Fatigue, Relaxation, and Creep Rupture of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Strands for Highway Bridge Construction,” in the May-June 2023 PCI Journal.
• Oregon State University won the 2023 Engineering Student Design (Big Beam) Competition. Students work with a PCI producer member to build a 20-foot-long precast, prestressed beam which is then tested. Team members are Sean Freitag, Nicholas Peterson, and Kobe Wagner. Faculty advisor is Tanarat Potisuk, and the PCI producer member is Knife River Prestress. The team also won the Keith Kaufmann Award for Best Report.

• The Big Beam Best Video Award went to Lehigh University, whose team members are Tj Briscoe, Constantine Patmanidis, and Urinrin Otite. Faculty advisor is Clay Naito, and the PCI producer member is High Concrete Group LLC. Watch the winning video here.