Competitions
2025 ASCE Society Competitions Hosted at Upstate New York-Canada
ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition
Since the early 1970s, 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.
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.
ASCE UESI Surveying 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.
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.
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.
ASCE Construction Institute Competition
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 3D Printing Competition
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.
RICHARD H. SCRANTON OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE COMPETITION
New this year, the Committee on Student Members will hold a pilot competition in the Region 1 Student Symposia (Metropolitan Student Symposium, Upstate New York – Canada Student Symposium, and the Northeast Student Symposium) to identify finalists for the ASCE Richard H. Scranton Award for Community Service.
The Richard H. Scranton Community Service Award is awarded to the chapter that demonstrates the strongest engagement in the community with projects that provide great value to and impact on their local community while engaging a large number of chapter members. This is an exciting opportunity for the ASCE Region 1 Student Chapters to showcase their community service efforts!
Student teams will submit a digital copy of the poster in advance to the host school (deadline TBD) and bring the actual poster to the symposium highlighting their 2024 community service efforts. Criteria for submissions will be posted on the student symposium website. Students should expect to prepare for judges to observe, evaluate, and hold a conversation with them to ask specific questions about their projects and the impact of their efforts. Student posters, projects, and oral responses will be evaluated, considering all community service projects documented as a body of work.
Each student chapter may submit one poster. One winner from the ASCE Upstate New York-Canada Student Symposium will be named the Symposium Community Service Award Champion. The champion will advance for final consideration for the Scranton Award by the Committee on Student Members. Their finalist status will put them in competition with schools from other non-pilot student symposia submitting annual reports. The ASCE Richard H. Scranton Award for Community Service Winner will be announced in late May.
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.
Student Symposium Paper Competition topic: Daniel W. Mead Topic
Submission Deadline: March 1, 2025
Submission email: [email protected]
One winner from the ASCE Upstate New York-Canada Student Symposium will be named the Symposium Paper Competition Champion. The champion will advance for final consideration by the Committee on Student Members with all other entries received for the Society-wide Daniel W. Mead Prize.
NEW THIS YEAR: The winning paper from the Student Symposium Paper Competition will advance for final consideration by the ASCE Committee on Student Members with all other entries received for the Society Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students Competition.
The Society Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students winner will be announced in June.
FOR REGION 1 ASCE STUDENT CHAPTERS: if your chapter wants to compete in the Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students Competition, there is no need for a separate submission outside of the 2025 ASCE Upstate New York-Canada Student Symposium. The submission to the symposium will serve as the submission for the Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students Competition as well.