The Boise State Civil Engineering teams returned on April 12, 2025 from the American Institute of Steel Construction and American Society of Civil Engineers Intermountain Southwest Student Symposium with multiple accolades to celebrate.
43 students and three Boise State advisors traveled to Tucson for three days to compete in multiple civil engineering competitions including the concrete bowling ball, concrete discus, concrete canoe, sustainable solutions, timber strong and steel bridge competitions. Each of these competitions required students to design, build and test their civil engineering feats.
Their technical prowess shone in every event in addition to their good sportsmanship and collaborative spirits.
“Not only did our students place in every single competition, they were also so incredibly kind and supportive of other teams throughout the event that they were voted by their peers to receive our region’s Spirit Bell. I can’t even put into words how proud I am of them,” said Briceland McLaughlin, a senior academic advisor who accompanied the student teams.
Symposium Results
- Concrete Bowling Ball – First Place (one point shy of a perfect score)
- Concrete Discus – Second Place
- Sustainable Solutions – First Place Overall . These students are bound for the national competition for a second year in a row.
- Most Livable Site – First Place
- Best Waterfront – First Place
- Best Sustainability Features – First Place
- Fan Favorite (as voted by peers and professionals) – First Place
- Timber Strong – Best in Show
- Steel Bridge
- Overall – Third Place
- Aesthetics – Second Place
- Stiffness Category – Third Place
- Structural Efficiency – Third Place
- Concrete Canoe
- Final Product – Second Place
- Women’s Slalom – Fourth Place
- Men’s Slalom – Third Place
- Other – “Most Athletic Soccer Champions” and “Best at Sponge Battleship.”
Civil Engineering senior Jay Martin competed in the steel bridge competition every year for four years, this year as president of the steel bridge team. To compete, participants receive a 50 page rule book months in advance, and then begin designing and analyzing their design iterations, a feat in itself because as Martin says “It is always a challenge because most of us haven’t even taken our design classes in school yet.”
He says the secret to his team’s success comes down to the pure dedication of team members.
“The steel bridge is one of the more time consuming competitions so the fact that we can get a group of about 15 students to meet multiple times a week while going to school five days a week, managing homework, working and somehow fitting in a life outside of all of that will always impresses me,” Martin said. “Every year it feels like we grow so close as a team we become a family.”
Tori Abbot is a senior civil engineering major from Boise who is also pursuing a Certificate of Drone Operations for Visualization, Research, and Resource Management. This was her third year competing, but this time in a new capacity: chief fundraiser and travel planner for all the civil engineering clubs that attended.
“Fundraising was definitely the most challenging part for me this year. We had to get creative, and one of the best ideas we came up with was starting our very first cornhole tournament fundraiser. It turned out to be such a fun and successful event. There were a lot of moving pieces to keep track of to get to the symposium, but it felt so good to see everything come together and to know we helped make it possible for so many students to attend,” Abbot said.
Unlike many other teams, the completion was not a part of the students’ required coursework.
“It’s also worth noting that Boise State was one of the only schools whose teams were not composed of senior capstone students. Our students participated purely for the love of the competition and a strong desire to learn and grow into outstanding professionals. Many of them haven’t yet taken junior-level civil engineering classes like structural, environmental or materials engineering. They’re learning on the fly and actively seeking guidance from faculty and industry mentors. We couldn’t be prouder.” McLaughlin said.
The student team members also wished to express enormous gratitude for the support of: Student Involvement and Leadership; the Associated Students of Boise State University; College of Engineering Business Operations Coordinator Sarah Wright; Business Operations Coordinator Trish Howley; past club leaders Lucas Arsenith and Grant Goertzen; McLaughlin; Civil engineering professor Nick Hudyma; and all of the club sponsors who made participation possible.
