Students to display capstone projects at Engineering Expo
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Thousands of people across the United States use bridges that are considered structurally deficient every day, according to a 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The next generation of engineers will be the people who take on the challenge of fixing or replacing those bridges. Among those engineers will be undergraduate students Tony Barem, Nikolaos Gountanis, Saeid J. Mahmoud, Jairo Miliani, and Victor Cano Morales.
The team of students honed their engineering skills in their Senior Design course, a two-semester capstone class that challenges students to solve real-world engineering problems through research, creativity, and the skills they developed at UIC, preparing them for the professional world.
The students researched the replacement of a 90-year-old, structurally deficient rail-over-road crossing that carries three active BNSF, Metra, and Amtrak tracks over a highway in Lisle, Illinois.
Since the rails cannot be raised, the students proposed a design that lowers the roadway beneath the rails while maintaining drainage, utilities, and traffic operations. The new bridge will be a 71-foot steel funicular through-arch bridge with a foundation that consists of 8×8-foot spread footings bearing on stiff silty clay. To avoid traffic disruptions, the students also suggest nighttime closures for arch and girder placement.
The team worked under the direction of Clinical Associate Professor Scott Banjavcic, project sponsor Trevor Cannon, civil design engineer III at Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd., and project advisor Steven M. Rienks, director of Engineering at American Surveying & Engineering.
In addition to engineering skills, the students were challenged to work as a team. “I think the most difficult part of the project is working as a group,” Morales said. “We had to learn how to work in a group with other students from other cultures with other ways of thinking. But in the end, we reached our goal.”
The team will present their results with hundreds of student projects on April 24 at UIC’s 2026 Engineering Expo. The annual expo will feature approximately 700 students representing about 200 teams from every department of the College of Engineering.
Among the participants will be 21 projects from civil, materials, and environmental engineering showcasing projects in structural engineering, transportation, construction and building science, environmental and water resources, sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems, engineering mechanics, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, and more.
The expo will take place on Friday, April 24, from 1-4 pm at Credit Union 1 Arena, 525 S. Racine Ave, Chicago. The event is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.