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Tyler Wood spent the summer after high school graduation working on a concrete crew. Never once when he was setting forms, laying rebar and troweling concrete did he think about getting a doctorate in civil engineering by researching reinforced concrete.

But that is exactly what the 2020 Dell Rapids High School graduate will do. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from South ��ֱ���� State University in May 2024 and through the accelerated program will be able to complete his master’s degree in civil engineering in July. 

In August he will enroll at Purdue University, which Wood said is ranked No. 5 in the nation for civil engineering. 

Nadim Wehbe, who retired June 22 as head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said in his 27 ½ years at SDSU, he can recall no other SDSU civil engineering undergraduate who went to a graduate program at Purdue.

Wood sailed through the bachelor’s program with a 4.0 GPA and has done similarly well as a master’s student under former SDSU associate professor Mostafa Tazarv. It wasn’t until a fall 2024 conversation with Tazarv that the thought of a Ph.D. moved to center stage in Wood’s life. He had long-range plans to own his own structural engineering firm.

Develops academic interests

But academic life has become increasing attractive to him.

“In high school, I didn’t have as good an environment to develop that learning. I wasn’t actively learning. Coming in as an 18-year-old undergraduate, I didn’t enjoy school. I was ready to be done, but knew I needed an undergraduate degree to be an engineer,” said Wood, a first-generation college student.

However, Wood flourished in a different environment.

“I developed a very deep appreciation for learning and for wanting to know. I have a desire to know — anything and everything. I learned to love to go to class. I started tutoring, and I loved that as well. In my junior year, I was fortunate enough to get an undergraduate research position under Dr. Tazarv. Similarly, I developed a love for research and that pushed me toward a master’s degree.”

In Wood’s graduate research project, he worked under Tazarv studying how much movement that utility poles have from the wind.

The project involves a wooden utility pole, a wind monitor, structural sensors and a lot of computer modeling. “The current design of utility poles is based on static loading. How can we change that to a dynamic system where things are always changing,” Wood said of the virtually completed research.

The work involved taking readings, entering them into the computer and making predictions on pole movement under various wind conditions.

Learning to become a scientist

That has nothing to do with the next phase of his academic life — studying reinforcement concrete. However, he said it has been a useful experience.

“I’ve learned how to be a good scientist. How to form a question, how to attack that problem from a different angle, how to foster that inner researcher within me. 

“I’ve learned what to ask, how to ask it and to go forward. I’ve learned the general research process — how the instruments work and how to use them in the proper manner, how to formulate your findings well so other researchers can digest them. The fundamentals, you need to learn them and master them to be a good scientist,” Wood said.

Wehbe expects Wood to become just as good of a scientist as he has been a student. 

Wehbe, a fellow of the American Concrete Institute, said, “Tyler completed three of my courses in the theory and design of reinforced and prestressed concrete. He consistently demonstrated an innate grasp of the underlying fundamentals, extending far beyond the routine application of methods and procedures. 

“His evident scientific curiosity and intellectual rigor will undoubtedly serve him well in a research career.”

Gradually gained concrete interest

In March 2024, Wood became the first SDSU students to receive a graduate fellowship from the American Concrete Institute.

In addition to the $10,000 award, he received all-expenses-paid trips to the spring 2024 and fall 2025 American Concrete Institute national conventions as well as the one he attended one in March 2024 as part of the graduate fellowship application process. 

Attending the conventions and classes he took caused Wood’s academic interest to change. “I unintentionally drifted toward concrete. It was a gradual process. As an undergraduate, I took the reinforced concrete design class. As a graduate student, I took prestress concrete design, advanced concrete design. 

“I took two or three classes at the graduate level that pretty well cemented my interest,” Wood said.

He said he is intrigued by the continual advancement in the concrete industry. For example, the recipe for concrete, particularly with the addition of additives, and the way in which rebar is placed in a structure, concrete has been used to make “really cool structures today,” Wood said.

3D machines for concrete printing also are at the proof-of-concept stage. He noted that such a machine, which eliminates the need for forms, exists at Purdue.

Favorite memory: Relationships

In Wood’s master’s degree experience, he has certainly learned to work independently. His adviser, Tazarv, left for a new position at the University of Nevada-Reno after fall semester. The effect on Wood was minimal.

“Our field site and the computer modeling were all set up. Dr. Tazarv was gracious enough to act in that adviser role via Zoom, so we still had weekly meetings. It was really nice I could continue with him,” Wood said.

Looking back on his five years at SDSU, Wood said his biggest surprise isn’t that he found concrete to be interesting — it is who he found to be interesting.

“It’s the interpersonal relationships. Throughout my undergraduate years, I met a whole plethora of people who were interested in the same things I was. They challenged me. In graduate school, I got introduced to a whole new group of people. They also challenged me. Also, I got to know quite a few faculty members both on an academic level and a nonacademic level.

“My favorite Jackrabbit memory was celebrating undergraduate graduation with all my buddies. … We got to see all our hard work paid off.”

Hard work that now has Wood off to Purdue for a doctoral degree.