Competitions
ASCE Society-wide Competitions
Updated 10/16/2023 at 7:02pm
Flagship Competitions
ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition
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.
Thank you to CMA for sponsoring!
AISC/ASCE Student Steel Bridge 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.
Thank you to AtkinsRéalis for sponsoring!
National Competitions
ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition
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.
Thank you to ADS for sponsoring!
2024 Topic
The fictional City of ASCE is well known for its early 20th Century waterfront and manufacturing hub on the Big Brown River to support the budding industrial economy at the time. However, a decline and abandonment of the riverfront has since occurred. The City is seeking proposals to revitalize and redevelop three blocks of the waterfront area using the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision framework to meet the City sustainability goals.
ASCE UESI Survey Competition
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 five tasks: a topographic mapping project with a presentation and four field tasks.
Thank you to Atwell for sponsoring!
ASCE Construction Institute Student Symposium Competition
The Construction Institute Student Symposium Competition tasks participating students with several real-world construction engineering challenges to which teams will be asked to provide written or diagrammatic responses as well as make an oral presentation to the owner (competition judges). Sample projects will entertain all sectors of civil engineering, while the individual challenges will be related to: Traffic Control / Site Logistics, QA/QC, Safety, Public Outreach, Environment, Risk Management, and other concerns that project managers and engineers plan for. 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.
Thank you to Turner for sponsoring!
Timber-Strong Design Build Competition
Get ready! Last year’s Timber-Strong Design BuildSM (TSDB) Competition, in partnership with the American Wood Council (AWC), APA – Engineered Wood Association (APA), and Simpson Strong-Tie (SST), saw student teams designing and building an original 2-story wood light-framed building. The challenge was to create a structure that was not only sustainable and structurally durable but also aesthetically pleasing and artistically creative.
Keep your creative and structural design skills honed as we prepare to announce the 2024 competition guidelines on September 5, 2023. We can’t wait to see the innovative structures this year’s competition will inspire!
Thank you to Apex and Simpson Strong-Tie for sponsoring!
ASCE Student Symposium Paper Competition (Eligibility Requirement)
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.
Thank you to Halff and Balmoral Group for sponsoring!
Regional Competitions
GeoWall Competition
The objective of the GeoWall competition is to design and build a model mechanically stabilized Earth (MSE) retaining wall using paper reinforcement taped to a poster board wall facing. The design should strive to need the least amount of reinforcement to support the retained soil and design loads.
Thank you to EGS for sponsoring!
Audrey’s Traffic Control Competition
Students are given a construction roadway project scenario at random. They will need to assemble TTC based on the given scenario and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Standard Plans. It is a race with a twist… and students will be docked for noncompliance with FDOT standards and for putting their team at risk / not obeying safety precautions.
Thank you to Arcadis for sponsoring!
Southeast Design-Build Challenge
Throughout your academic journey, you’ve delved into myriad courses to master the core tenets of engineering. This competition represents a chance to manifest those principles into practical application, emulating a real-world design-build project. For this endeavor, there are two pivotal roles: the judges, who will assume the guise of the “Owner”, and your student ensemble, which will be designated as the “Design-Build Team”. On Friday, March 22, 2024, your team is tasked with delivering a presentation elucidating the design and preliminary budget of the project. Subsequently, on Saturday, March 23, 2024, you will showcase your completed constructed artifact to the “Owners”. They will appraise submissions based on uniqueness and the aptitude to encapsulate the essence of the project scope. As the “Owner”, we operate within a defined budget for projects. Hence, we invite you to compete by offering design and construction services that will stand out and impress our team. Your objective is to persuade us of the merits of your project and why it stands out compared to those of your competitors.
Thank you to BGE for sponsoring!
Company-Branded Competitions
Jacobs Solutioneering Competition
(Please note a correction to this competition was made on October 16, 2023, at 7:02pm)
Jacobs Engineering Group is dedicated to challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world’s most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operation advancement, scientific discovery, and cutting-edge manufacturing, by turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. Whether you are a civil engineer, structural engineer, architect, or mechanical engineer, we all can be a solutioneer! Jacob’s defines a solutioneer as: “A visionary who transforms challenges into opportunities to make a smarter, more connected, and sustainable world.” Through collaboration amongst all engineering disciplines, we can brainstorm, develop, and deliver our innovative solutions into reality.
Thank you to Jacobs for sponsoring!
FPCA & PCI Mini Prestressed Beam Competition
Prestressed Concrete is concrete with its primary reinforcement consisting of steel strand that has been put into tension which results in compression of concrete. This is similar how you tune a guitar string. Teams will use bass guitar strings to act as the prestressing force within a concrete beam. Each team will have control over the ultimate shape of the beam but defining factors such as length, width, and height of the formwork, as well as the amount of concrete material that will be provided dictate the final product.
Thank you to FPCA & PCI for sponsoring!
Local Competitions
T-Shirt Competition
The regional T-Shirt Competition allows competing teams to demonstrate their artistic ability, creativity, and communication of graphic design. Universities are encouraged to wear their designed T-shirt on Saturday, but it is not required.
Thank you to AVCON, Inc. for sponsoring!
Mystery Competition
The regional Mystery Competition challenges students to think on their feet and to work as a team to accomplish a given task at hand. Teams will not be given any information about the competition until the time of the event.
Thank you to Poulos & Bennett for sponsoring!
Concrete Cornhole Competition
Each school will bring a concrete corn hole board to be judged and to be used in a double elimination bracket tournament. Judging will be based on the performance of teams during the tournament, aesthetics, and technical components of the mix and board.
Thank you to Kimley-Horn for sponsoring!
Spirit Competition: Resume Edition
Inspired by feedback from our treasured sponsor companies, we’re steering the competition in a direction that’s both relevant and beneficial for our participating students. We understand that the transition from academia to professional life can be challenging, and what better way to bridge this gap than by focusing on an integral aspect of job-seeking: your resume.
Thank you to BCC for sponsoring!
Plans Reading Competition
This event is designed to challenge students in the area of construction plan reading and construction estimating.
Thank you to RS&H for sponsoring!