Construction MGMT Wins Nationals

Construction MGMT Wins Nationals

Construction MGMT Wins Nationals

Utah Valley University’s (UVU) Smith College of Engineering & Technology (CET) Construction Management program recently sent more than two dozen students to the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) competition in Sparks, Nevada, and took home multiple accolades. This nationwide competition featured more than 1,600 students, making up over 200 teams, from 57 participating universities, across 24 states, from Alaska to Arizona, and from California to Virginia.

The four-day experience, from February 8-11, began with an early morning (Wednesday 5 am) drive from the Orem campus to the Nugget hotel in Sparks, Nevada, where students were treated to a guest speaker and delicious buffet-style dinner, followed by a raffle, where they got their first win!

The Construction Management program sent the following four teams: Heavy Civil, Commercial, Mixed-Use, and Project Management - plus a category for ‘alternate’ contenders, who competed with students from other schools in their own category.

Later, the teams reported to their industry competition problem sponsor where they were given their competition problem. The Heavy Civil problem was a complex highway expansion project in Hawaii. The Mixed-Use problem was a new gothic-style tower and building on a college campus. The Commercial problem was a professional sports stadium, and the Project Management problem was the refurbishment of a downtown office building.

Not only did UVU finish third place nationally in the Mixed-Use category (team members: Yahir Narciso, Andrew Weight, Jacob Chugg, Alec Spottiswood, Joseph Robins, Drew Christensen), where they had to compete against 11 other teams - but one student, Wyatt Baum, earned first place as an alternate, of which there were over 300!

Each problem category required teams to create a construction schedule, estimate, site logistics plan, risk analysis, safety plan, and strategy for a real-world multi-million-dollar project as part of the competition. Friday, the students presented their solutions to the project in a formal presentation to the industry judges, who had recently constructed the very projects the students were given. These presentations lasted throughout the day with a meet-and-greet with representatives from the industry.

Saturday, students got up early, to visit vendor booths, collect ‘swag’, and have continental breakfasts. There were more than 120 national companies attending – all for the purpose of recruiting students to their respective companies. That same morning during the recruiting fair, students, staff, and faculty gathered in the ballroom for an awards ceremony.

UVU competed against other construction management program teams from all over the United States including Auburn, Purdue, Stanford, Berkeley, BYU, UCLA, and Colorado State, just to name a few.

To learn more about the CET Construction Management program, please visit https://www.uvu.edu/ct/cm/

1st Alternates ASC Team

first alternates asc team

Written by Owen Miller on February 27, 2023