ASCE regional symposium comes to USU
For the first time in 11 years, Utah State University’s civil and environmental engineering department will host the American Society of Civil Engineers’ regional symposium from April 11-13.
According to the ASCE website, several events are open to the public, including a concrete canoe race, concrete bowling, a steel bridge building contest — a surveying challenge where teams complete a topographic mapping project and solve other problems in the industry — and Timber Strong, an event where students design and construct a two-story wooden building.
According to ASCE student chapter president Katie Andersen, there will be several student presentations during the symposium, but these will be closed to the public because of lack of space.
Most of the events are about civil engineering, but two events are focused on environmental sustainability. The first is Sustainable Solutions, where students redesign a city block, and the second is Environmental Design, where students build water filters or other environmentally friendly designs, according to Andersen.
Students from 12 to 15 universities in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona will be competing in the events.
“I’m excited to see the competition and camaraderie amongst the universities. It will be exciting to see so many people’s hard work and ingenuity in engineering,” wrote Kyle Miller, a civil and environmental engineering major, in a text message.
The competition is completely student-run, Andersen said. All of the volunteers are also students. The judges of the competitions are professional engineers or recent engineering graduates.
Andersen said events like these are important because they give students a way to practice skills in a low stakes environment. She mentioned an event for environmental engineers where students focus on building a bioretention cell as one example.
“Students get to learn about how to build those things that they don’t necessarily learn in their classes but they would learn in the field,” she said. “They could learn it now and use that for the future.”
Austin Ball, associate professor of practice in the civil engineering department, agreed. “It’s practicing those technical skills,” he said. “It’s also practicing working in a team environment. It’s practicing communicating.”
Ball said events such as the steel bridge building competition and concrete boat races are “no small feat.”
“There’s the personal sense of achievement of having gone and done something that’s really quite a bit above and beyond in many cases,” Ball said. “It’s kind of exciting to be able to do that and say, ‘Yeah, I did this.’”
Andersen enjoys these types of competitions.
“It gave me a community of students who were all working towards a similar goal. And then when we won at these competitions there’s the pride that comes with it knowing that my education has prepared me to do well,” she said.
Approximately 20% of civil and environmental engineering students are members of the ASCE, according to its website. This is one of the biggest member bases in the region. There are 42 civil and environmental engineering majors competing in this year’s symposium from USU, according to Andersen.
Events will take place at USU and throughout Cache Valley. Andersen said people can come watch as long as they check in and sign a liability waiver. The canoe race and concrete bowling will be held at Hyrum Reservoir on Saturday, April 13.