Each year, the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) challenges students to design, fabricate and test a prestressed concrete beam. Each beam is judged on a number of criteria including cost, efficiency, practicality and accuracy of predicted behaviour. Teams from all around the world compete in this international competition. The 2014 team from the University of Toronto includes Rami Mansour, Amos Chen, Karl Shao and Xi Li. The rectangular, variable depth beam is posttensioned with harped strands.

For the test, the beam was supported at it's two ends with two incrementally increasing loads at midspan. It is interesting to note that the majority of the beams deflection occurs after then steel tendons have yield. In addition, the explosive failure is a result of the concrete crushing at the top of the beam.