Six students from Montana State University’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering felt their hearts begin to pound as an announcer called each team to the stage in the order they placed at the Associated Schools of Construction’s Region 6 Competition in Reno, Nevada.
Third place. Second place.
“It’s now or never,” thought Max Demarais, a junior construction engineering technology major.
As soon as “Montana State University” left the announcer’s lips, Demarais and his teammates erupted, pumping their fists to the sound of 31 cheering peers. They earned first place out of 17 teams in the heavy civil construction competition held Feb. 5-8.
“We haven’t won this competition in the heavy civil division in 13 years, so to be the group of students to bring that trophy back to Montana State was pretty rewarding,” Demarais said.
The students, five of whom were competing for the first time, had 16 hours to devise a construction plan and present their work to a panel of judges — competition sponsors who had recently completed the real-world project assigned to the students.
The MSU heavy civil team included Demarais, Michael Boothe, Zane Cummings, Nick Guerentz, Isaac Madill and Ashlyn Morse. Team alternates were Andrew Clark and Madigan Kuser, who participated in their own competition.
Other MSU teams entered the mixed-use building, commercial construction, concrete solutions and pre-construction categories. The mixed-use students took second place out of 16 teams. Team members include Mason Baker, Owen Draper, Luke Jaraczeski, Addee Picket, Campbell Smith, Jacob Teats and alternates David Long and Cole Ackerman.
Competition started at 6 a.m. for the heavy civil team to develop a construction plan to expand an airport on the Kaneohe Bay Marine Base in Oahu, Hawaii. Students weighed pricing and material quantities for new taxiways, a helicopter landing pad and parking spaces — all while keeping within U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ guidelines.
Students soon discovered they were missing critical pieces of information, called addendums, in their instructions. Kiewit, the construction company sponsoring the heavy civil event, revealed eight new addendums in subsequent meetings, pushing the teams to rework their plans to incorporate the new details — an Achillies’ heel for MSU teams until this year, said Bret Martin, faculty coach and associate teaching professor in MSU’s Department of Civil Engineering.
“You do everything you can, and then you’re just an anxious parent, hoping they do good,” he said.
During the fall semester, MSU students prepared for the competition with Martin’s two-credit Estimating and Bidding Fundamentals course.
The heavy civil team created spreadsheets and equations for 10 hours each week in MSU’s Renne Library, hoping to plug new information from the competition into premade documents for a more efficient workflow. Local sponsors, including Knife River Construction and Ames Construction, hosted three hands-on workshops throughout the course and guided students in projects simulating the real world. Each MSU team worked with three companies as part of the class.
The course allows companies to develop the next generation of engineers, Martin said. In turn, students learn from industry professionals and become a team driven toward collective success rather than individual performance.
“I’ve had an internship before, but this is the closest it gets to the real world,” said Cummings, the heavy civil team captain and a junior CET major.
In its final, 16-hour workshop before the competition, the team stumbled presenting its project. Rather than dwelling on disappointment, the challenge lit a fire under the students, Martin said.
“[Zane’s] the one who grabbed them by their noses and dragged them across that finish line,” Martin said.
The students worked through the night in Reno to prepare their project package by 10 p.m. and practice presenting before 6 a.m. on the second day of the competition. They “embraced the struggle” and worked well as a team of close friends, Demarais said.
Although winning was not the sole reason for competing, Cummings said he feels reinvigorated for his final semesters at MSU and defending the heavy civil title in Reno next year.
Martin said winning or placing in the competition is a massive accomplishment, with the separation between teams often coming down to a single point out of 1,000.
“Was it a lot of work? Yes,” he said. “Was it worth it? And the answer is always yes.”
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