Competitions
2025 ASCE Society Competitions Hosted at the Virginias
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 several tasks: a topographic mapping project with a presentation, topo map display at the symposium, and field tasks.
ASCE Construction Institute Student Symposium Competition (pilot)
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.
Marr Technical Paper – Student Symposium Paper Competition (Eligibility Requirement)
The ASCE Student Symposium Paper Competitions emphasize the importance of being able to write and present a paper or topic as essential communication skills for all engineers and often necessary for advancement in your career. The Marr Technical Paper Competition consists of a paper submission and a presentation at the student symposium. The Hardy Cross Oratory Competition consists of giving a report, in the form of an oral presentation, about a chosen topic.
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: February 17, 2025
Submission link: https://forms.gle/72uA4FM84rXh8xM89
The Marr Technical Paper Competition topic is the same topic as the Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students. However, the Student Symposium Paper Competition and the Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students are two separate competitions and must be submitted separately. The Marr Technical Paper Competition paper is due February 17, 2025, and submitted to https://forms.gle/72uA4FM84rXh8xM89. The Daniel W. Mead Prize for Students is due March 1 and submitted to [email protected].
The Hardy Cross Oratory Competition (Eligibility Requirement)
The Hardy Cross Oratory Competition topic is a Civil Engineering topic of the competitors choosing. Students will research a Civil Engineering topic of their choosing. Then, at the conference, each competing student will give a report, in the form of an oral presentation, about his or her chosen topic. The Hardy Cross Oratory Competition topic is due February 17, 2025, and submitted to https://forms.gle/8X9opemkuAScCxri8.
Submission deadline: February 17, 2025
Submission link: https://forms.gle/8X9opemkuAScCxri8