Competitions
Since the 1960s, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapters have competed to be the best at designing, constructing, and racing concrete canoes. During that time, canoe mixtures and designs have varied, but the long-established tradition of teamwork, camaraderie, and spirited competition has been constant. Each year, teams, their associates, judges, and other participants build upon this tradition. This year, teams answered a call for Technical Proposals and Enhanced Focus Area Reports and are competing to be the winning bid on a prototype standardized canoe design for future concrete canoe competitions. Learn more about the competition.
ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) are partnering to offer the Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC) at ASCE Student Symposia.
The Student Steel Bridge Competition challenges students to extend their classroom knowledge to a practical and hands-on steel-design project that grows their interpersonal and professional skills, encourages innovation, and fosters impactful relationships between students and industry professionals.
Each student team develops a concept for a scale-model steel bridge to span approximately 20 feet and to carry 2,500 pounds according to the competition rules. The team must determine how to fabricate their bridge and then plan for an efficient assembly under timed construction conditions at the competition. Bridges are also load-tested, weighed, and judged on aesthetics.
The ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition challenges students to develop a stronger understanding of sustainability and learn to incorporate sustainable solutions into everyday problems that engineers incur. Students are encouraged to be creative in their solutions and use all resources available. Learn more about the competition.
2025 Topic
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of ASCE (the City) and many private companies implemented flexible workplace policies, allowing employees to work in hybrid and remote settings. This shift has resulted in office building occupancy averaging less than 25% of pre-pandemic levels, affecting the ability and willingness of commercial offices to sustain their previous levels of investment and returns. In response, The City has formed a public-private partnership (PPP) to acquire a parcel with a 5-story commercial office building for mixed-use redevelopment. The City has adopted the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision framework to achieve its sustainability goals and will use it as a key assessment tool for this project.
The ASCE UESI Surveying Competition’s educational and professional goals include a recognition of the importance of basic surveying principles to all civil engineering projects. Students will be required to use standard field and office equipment and procedures to solve common problems encountered in industry. A clear understanding of and ability to apply basic surveying principles will assist the graduate civil engineer in communicating and working with the surveying professionals on the job site and during the design process. Learn more about the competition.
The ASCE UESI Surveying Competition rules describe several tasks: a topographic mapping project with a presentation, topo map display at the symposium, and field tasks.
The Construction Institute Student Symposium Competition tasks participating students with several real-world construction engineering challenges to which teams will be asked to devise a solution and communicate it via presentation to a panel of judges. Sample projects may relate to any sector of civil engineering, while different parts of the problem statement may compel students to consider different parts of the project delivery process, such as: Site Logistics, QA/QC, Safety, Public Outreach, the Environment, Risk Management, and other project management and engineering considerations. Each student team shall act as a construction engineering firm, and these responses shall be directed and delivered professionally, similarly to how a real company would address an owner requesting additional information from a firm during the pre-construction phase of a job.
ASCE has partnered with the American Wood Council (AWC), APA – Engineered Wood Association (APA), and Simpson Strong-Tie (SST) to pilot the Timber-Strong Design Build℠ (TSDB℠) Competition. The competition seeks student teams to design and build an artistically creative 2-story wood light-framed building that is sustainable, aesthetically pleasing and structurally durable.
This competition will continue to be offered as a pilot competition in 2025.
Learn more about the competition partners:
The ASCE 3D Printing Competition promotes the application of 3D printing technology in the field of civil engineering. In 2025, the ASCE 3D Printing: Bridging the Future Competition focuses on bridges. Students are challenged to design an aesthetically pleasing, strong, and stiff 3D-printed bridge that will take the least amount of assembly time and meets the geometric requirements.
The 3D Printing Competition has its origin at the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s inter-collegiate competition in November 2021.
This competition will continue to be offered as a pilot competition in 2025.
The ASCE Student Symposium Paper Competition emphasizes the importance of being able to write and present a paper as essential communication skills for all engineers and often necessary for advancement in your career.
Good faith participation in the ASCE Student Symposium Paper Competition, including submission and presentation by at least one (1) member of the ASCE Student Chapter, is a requirement to advance to an ASCE Society-wide Competition Finals. Competitions requiring this include Concrete Canoe, Student Steel Bridge, UESI Surveying, and Sustainable Solutions.
No other Society-wide competition report or paper may serve as a submission for the ASCE Student Symposium Paper Competition.
Submission Deadline: January 31, 2025
Submission email: Student Symposium Paper Competition Submission Portal
The Student Symposium Paper Competition topic is the Daniel W. Mead Topic: Considering ethics, what role do civil engineers play in the prevention and response to an infrastructure disaster? Should an infrastructure disaster rouse civil engineers globally to advocate for more resilient protections for built infrastructure from climate-driven and/or man-made disasters?
Consider the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse in Maryland, the Interstate 95 Collapse in Pennsylvania, or other infrastructure disasters. Civil engineers are responsible for planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting and advancing the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Following large infrastructure disasters, civil engineers are often placed in the public spotlight to respond and assess the cause of the disaster and how to prevent future similar events.
The Student Symposium Paper Competition and the Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students are two separate competitions and must be submitted separately. The Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students is due March 1st and submitted to [email protected].