Minnesota State University Adds Precast Educational Projects

Minnesota State University at Mankato is the tenth school to receive a grant to start a new precast concrete education program that will be housed in the schools of engineering and construction management. This project will focus on teaching precast and prestressed concepts to civil engineering and construction management undergraduate students.

“We are excited to see how our programming is expanding from just single schools of architecture to construction management and engineering programs working in collaboration,” says Douglas Sutton, Academic Council Chair for the PCI Foundation. “The program outlined at Mankato reflects a growing trend in the US for construction disciplines to work cooperatively in the field.”

Professor James Wilde will lead a team of professors who will work with students to advance their knowledge of materials, methods, and design principles of prestressed concrete. They will also work together in Building Information Modeling (BIM) to recognize its benefits. In addition to reaching undergraduate students, the new program will serve as a resource for continuing education of professionals in both basic and advanced topics of precast/prestressed concrete.

The local partner working with MSU Mankato is Wells Concrete in Albany, MN. “Wells Concrete will provide access to a ‘real life’ project for students to utilize as a case study. Students will follow the project’s progression from preconstruction planning, engineering design and 3D modeling, production of the components and finally field installation, says Dan Juntunen, Well’s CEO.

For more information about these and other programs done in conjunction with the PCI Foundation, visit the website at pci-foundation.org.

PHOTO - L-R: James Wilde (MSU Civil Engineering), Mike Johnsrud (PCI-Midwest), Farhad Reza (MSU Civil Engineering), Gregg Jacobson (Wells Concrete, Inc.), and Mohamed Diab (MSU Construction Management).