As she walked into the Nitterhouse Concrete Products plant, senior civil engineering major Emily Calamia was dressed for the occasion in a hard hat, jeans, and a Nitterhouse Concrete Products hoodie. “Aren’t they sweet? Mr. Mark gave them to us,” she said of the hoodie. It was a simple moment, but one that really drove home the importance of a meaningful connection that will have a lasting impact on the careers of five Ship students. “I have had the pleasure of serving on the Ship Industrial Advisory Board for the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department over the last several years. I also work with their department chair, Dr. Moayyad Al-Nasra, to provide plant tours for his students annually. Emily and her team reached out to me to help source fly ash and some chemical admixtures. Nitterhouse donated the materials (with the assistance of the Shippensburg University Foundation) and that started a collaboration on their project,” said Mark Taylor, CEO of Nitterhouse.
Dream Team
The “project” is the senior capstone project for civil engineering majors Calamia, Kyler Everly, Kiara Fox, Clayton Diehl, and Blake Speiden. The “Ship Dream Team,” as they call themselves, formed in the fall of 2025 to tackle their research project titled, Conceptual Framework for Floating Concrete Applications: Prestressed FRP in Lightweight Structural Design and Optimizations. The group formed in August of 2025 exploring the concept of floating concrete that could one day sustain inhabitable structures. Such a feat would require concrete that is both strong and buoyant. “Concrete itself is very good in compression, but on its own, with tension it tends to crack easily,” said Diehl He explained that by adding steel rebar, tensile strength is increased. If the steel is prestressed, it further increases the strength of the concrete. “We wanted to look at using fiberglass reinforced polymer (FRP) instead of steel, because it doesn’t corrode like steel while in the ocean and it’s lighter, which adds to the buoyancy of the concrete,” explained Diehl. FRP is not used in the United States in this way, and there has been little research into its use in the country. That was until their new connection, Taylor at Nitterhouse, brought additional new connections to the team.
“I was fascinated with the prestressing of FRP portion of their project. This was something I have not seen in the industry and had to research myself. I was able to connect with Dr. Antonio Nanni, one of my undergraduate professors, who has done testing with FRP prestressing at Penn State and currently at the University of Miami (UM),” said Taylor.
Nanni connected the Ship Dream Team with a graduate student at the University of Miami who helped them develop a process to successfully prestress the FRP. From this contact they gained insight into how the experiment should work, what materials to use, and gave advice in terms of what standards to reference. It was a connection Calamia said made a huge difference.
“Because FRP behaves so differently than steel, there are so many behavioral and material aspects that change, when you try to prestress or test it. Without their advice, I fear we would have not gotten nearly as far. They helped us pick the right kind of grout, walked us through how the prestressing experiment should work, and allowed us to connect via Zoom for an hour to ask any questions we had. They were as excited to teach us, as we were excited to learn from them,” explained Calamia.
With a test plan in place thanks to their new connections at the UM, Nitterhouse supplying concrete materials, and a place to prestress and pour the concrete, the team still needed to source the FRP. Taylor reached out to a colleague at Ernest Maier, Dr. Aaron Fisher, vice president of businesses development looking for information on the FRP and Fisher offered to give the students the material they needed for their study. It was another connection that helped propel the Ship Dream Team forward and support the success of their research.
With the resources, research, and plan in place, the team spent countless hours during the early months of the spring semester in the Milton and Doreen Morgan Engineering Laboratory and at Nitterhouse preparing, testing, adapting to expected and unexpected challenges, and cultivating the connections they made.
“Every step we took, we got closer to the finish line. Of course there were setbacks, but as engineers and as students working on our capstone project, we just had to figure it out. And that’s what we did,” said Fox.
When it came time to start testing the use of FRP, the Nitterhouse connection was once again the difference maker. “Nitterhouse prestresses 7-wire steel strand on a regular basis so we have the capability to assist the students with prestressing forms and equipment that they would otherwise not have access to,” explained Taylor.
Over two days, students worked with Taylor and his team at Nitterhouse to prestress the FRP, mix and pour concrete, and prepare two concrete beams for strength testing, one with prestressed FRP and one with non-prestressed FRP.
“Working with the Nitterhouse team was amazing. We didn’t realize how much equipment we’d need for the prestressing experiment specifically, so having access to their facility literally made our project possible. We would not have the force or materials to complete it without them,” said Calamia.
The beams were brought back to the engineering lab to strength test, and in April, the Ship Dream Team will present their research results to their department and will invite those who have gifted their time and resources. And while they have learned a lot about civil engineering, they all agreed the most valuable lesson in this experience is the importance of connections.
“Mark’s connections to suppliers, sources of information, and manpower was invaluable. We learned so much of how the concepts in our project apply to the real world, as well as how connections are what makes the world go round. Everyone on his team was helpful, invested, and seemed to be more excited about that project than we were. All of them put in extra hours for us, and we cannot thank them enough for all their help, interest, and support—Mark most of all,” said Calamia. “
You can learn and advance the most with top-notch networking. When meeting people in school clubs, at engineering events, and through research projects, it’s important to become a sponge and absorb all the knowledge they are willing to share,” said Everly.
It was also a professional connection that led to Taylor’s involvement with the program and ultimately with the Ship Dream Team.
“Our owner and CEO, William K. Nitterhouse, has always had a soft spot for Shippensburg University. He has served on the Shippensburg University Foundation Board for many years. Among other things on campus, he donated the prestressed-concrete double-tee pedestrian bridge that spans the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail to the Spiritual Center. His involvement undoubtedly precipitated SU’s invitation for us to serve on the Industrial Advisory Board. The connections are equally as valuable for industry leaders like Taylor.
“I was excited to hear when SU developed a civil engineering program. It is fantastic to have this program in this area. I am proud an honored to assist these students,” said Taylor.
