This year's student-run Eastern Great Lakes ASCE Student Symposium was a success, with multiple Michigan Tech team wins and an atmosphere of camaraderie that extended across campus to span the snowy shores of the Keweenaw Waterway.
From April 10-12, Houghton became a city of civil engineers as 16 competing universities and more than 450 student competitors arrived at Michigan Technological University to participate in the Eastern Great Lakes ASCE Student Symposium, hosted by Michigan Tech's student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Hosting the regional civil engineering conference at Michigan Tech was a true return to the event's roots. The University's history with the national competition goes all the way back to the beginning. Michigan Tech was one of three schools to participate in the first Student Steel Bridge Competition in 1987, which has now become part of the suite of civil engineering student competitions held during regional symposiums across the country. Winners from each region advance to nationals.
Michigan Tech's ASCE chapter has a history of standout performances in events including Steel Bridge, Concrete Canoe, and the relatively new Timber Strong. This year, Huskies had an additional challenge — they wore multiple hard hats as both competitors and hosts.
The American Society of Civil Engineers is the oldest national civil engineering society and has 416 university chapters around the world. Above all else, members are charged to "protect and advance the health, safety, and welfare of the public" as practicing civil engineers. Michigan Tech's ASCE chapter is part of the Eastern Great Lakes region, which consists of 20 universities from Michigan and Ohio. The undergraduate students responsible for this year's symposium knew that putting on an event of this magnitude would be no small feat.
"Preparing for competition each year is a monumental effort in itself, but adding symposium planning to the mix has granted me a humbling respect for all those who have volunteered their time planning past symposiums and those yet to come," said Brendan Tanner, civil engineering student and Michigan Tech's ASCE chapter president.
Tech students worked all year for these three days in April. In addition to their weekly team meetings and practices, the ASCE students coordinated team registration and waivers, communicated updated rules and guidelines, and handled publicity and logistics for the event, all while staying on top of their extensive workload as engineering students.
Let the Games Begin: Tests of Skill and Structure
Competitions were held on campus at the Gates Tennis Center and Memorial Union Building and off campus at the Ray Kestner Waterfront Park and Mont Ripley.
While the region's teams spent the full academic year preparing to compete against one another, every event was brimming with sportsmanlike camaraderie. Opposing teams applauded their rivals in Steel Bridge and Timber Strong. During the Concrete Canoe swamp tests, where unmelted snow made maneuvering across the shore slightly hazardous, it was all hands on deck.
"When the day of the symposium finally arrived and the chaos began, I was amazed to stop and see the unity that this competition brought forth as complete strangers from all across Michigan and Ohio worked together to lift and portage 450-pound concrete canoes," said Tanner.
Event volunteers and members of multiple teams helped carry the canoes one by one from the parking lot down to the water. While it was too cold to hold the race portion of the canoe competition, the crowds of university and community members gathered at Kestner Park had plenty to cheer for during the swamp test, as canoes were submerged in water and given two minutes to float to the surface.
During the symposium, student teams are competitors, with reputations and traditions on the line. But they're also colleagues and fellow engineers. Many competitors have seen each other at previous symposia over the years and continue to learn from one another each time. For Ryan Andrick, symposium chair and environmental engineering student, that's what the competition is all about.
"When it was time for the competition, getting to see the familiar faces year after year, and seeing their excitement to be here, made the stressful moments of the symposium disappear," said Andrick. "I may not deeply know some of the students I am competing with, but the shared camaraderie of learning from the competition against each other and talking about how we each interpreted the rules differently makes it feel like we have done this competition for decades."
The overall success of the symposium comes as no surprise to Audra Morse, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering (CEGE). Morse and Andrew Swartz, associate professor and CEGE associate chair, serve as faculty advisors for Tech's ASCE chapter.
"I know the road to qualify for the national competition is very competitive. When I mentioned this to the students, they shrugged and said, 'This is just what we do.'"
"After joining Michigan Tech as the department chair, I had an opportunity to learn the extensive success of our steel bridge and concrete canoe teams — and I mean decades of success," said Morse.
To Morse, the tenacity of these ASCE students is emblematic of all civil engineers at Michigan Tech.
"Michigan Tech civil engineers are humble, hardworking, and dedicated to the profession," said Morse. "They are comfortable saying 'I don't know' and will seek out an answer. They value hands-on experiences, getting dirty, and challenging themselves to succeed. Civil engineers at Tech are intrinsically motivated and they love to win."
And win they have. Michigan Tech's teams won first place in the Timber Strong, Concrete Canoe, and Wastewater Treatment competitions, as well as second place in the Student Steel Bridge Competition.
Perhaps most tellingly, Michigan Tech was also awarded the "Spirit of the Competition" award for their integrity, teamwork and professionalism.
Michigan Tech's Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge teams will go on to compete at nationals. The Student Steel Bridge Competition National Finals will take place at Iowa State University on May 30-31 and the Concrete Canoe competition will be part of the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships at California Polytechnic State University on June 27-29.
Michigan Tech's ASCE chapter is thrilled with their wins, but they're also grateful for the experiences gained from hosting a large symposium. "The competition showed me how much a small group of students can do to make a positive impact," said Andrick.
Tanner agreed. "Hosting the 2025 ASCE Eastern Great Lakes Student Symposium has been the most rewarding challenge I've faced during my time at Michigan Tech," he said. "This has been an incredibly gratifying experience that I will carry with pride for the rest of my life, and none of it would have been possible without the generosity, dedication and support of Michigan Tech and its amazing faculty and students."
Michigan Technological University is an R1 public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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