Student of the Year Award
2006-2007 Recipient
Travis Burgers
Burgers earned his M.S., degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University (CSU) in August 2005, and a B.S. degree in engineering from Dordt College, Sioux Center, IA, in 2003. He is presently a doctoral student in biomechanics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Burgers held a dual appointment as a graduate teaching assistant and a graduate research assistant in the Department of Civil Engineering at CSU from 2003 to mid-2005. As a graduate teaching assistant he was an instructor in various undergraduate laboratory-based courses. As a graduate research assistant he was supported via funds from the Mountain-Plains Consortium. He worked on an innovative repair method for timber bridges adapted from an aerospace industry process termed "Z-spiking" used in making laminated composites. His study consisted of applying Z-spikes (fiberglass reinforced polymer rods) to damaged stringer members. He conducted extensive laboratory tests of a full-scale chord of an open-deck timber trestle railroad bridge that had been reinforced by Z-spiking. It was highly successful and his thesis work was included in a 5-year accomplishment report submitted to the USDOT by the Mountain-Plains Consortium. The work was also presented at the 2006 International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering held in Budapest, Hungary, and published in the proceedings.
In summer 2004, Burgers served as a mentor to a student in the McNair scholars program for underrepresented undergraduate students. He helped the student integrate research and education via overseeing his designing and conducting a summer research project in transportation-related research.
He was surveying assistant in highway work with Wilsey & Associates. He also was a test lab assistant for Behr Heat Transfer, conducting burst, pressure and wind tunnel tests on oil coolers and evaluating test outcomes.
Burgers has received numerous recognitions including a Dordt College Presidential Scholarship, Dordt College Summer Ministries Scholarship, Pella Corporation Engineering Scholarship, Link Manufacturing Ltd. Technical Scholarship, First Premier Bank Scholarship, and the Sioux Valley Hospital Scholarship. He was a First Team All-Conference member when he-co-captained the Dordt College men's soccer team. He also received a Burger King/FCA Scholar Athlete Scholarship, and several Dordt College athletic scholarships.
Presently, Burgers is conducting research on press-fit fixation and visco-elastic response of a bone-implant interface. This technology will contribute to improved understanding and treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee by combining 3-D computational modeling and cadaveric mechanics testing of femurs surgically treated with implants. He hopes to apply such studies to other medical conditions, physical trauma, and bone injuries in his future career.
Burgers' instructors consider him an ideal graduate student, possessing inexhaustible curiosity, high intellect and an intense work ethic. He is confident in his extraordinary abilities, pursuing them in a low-key manner and works well in team settings. Combining these traits with his extensive scholastic accomplishments insures his success in his professional career aspirations.
