Can concrete canoes float, or will they sink? That’s what hundreds of college students will discover during one of the signature competitions of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Mid-America Student Symposium, hosted April 3-5 by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Engineering’s ASCE student chapters.
More than 400 engineering students and faculty from six states will come together to test their skills and demonstrate the innovation and creativity of tomorrow’s engineers.
The event, co-hosted by ASCE student chapters at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is one of numerous regional ASCE student symposia taking place across the U.S. this spring.
The symposium will include competitions that test students’ knowledge of engineering principles, design capabilities and teamwork skills. These include the design, fabrication and racing of concrete canoes; building of steel and 3D-printed bridges; and surveying.
This gives students the opportunity to showcase their engineering skills and knowledge, start networking with other students and industry partners, and have a lot of fun while doing it.
“It’s so exciting to have the Mid-America Symposium at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Engineering for the first time in almost 15 years,” said Mia Toigo, a senior civil engineering major and co-chair of the ASCE Mid-America Symposium. “This gives students the opportunity to showcase their engineering skills and knowledge, start networking with other students and industry partners, and have a lot of fun while doing it.”
Highlights of the event will include ASCE symposia staple competitions:
- Concrete canoe: Chapters use their own concrete mixes to design and build canoes — some more than 20 feet long and weighing more than 300 pounds. The canoes will be tested for buoyancy and raced at Holmes Lake, near 70th and Van Dorn streets, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 4. The event will feature races for teams of up to four rowers. Teams will also be evaluated in project management challenges.
- Steel bridge: Teams will assemble scale-model bridges they have fabricated from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 5 at Kiewit Hall, 1700 Vine St. The bridges span about 20 feet, must be able to carry 2,500 pounds and will be judged on load testing, overall weight and appearance, and time needed for assembly.
- 3D printing: Teams design and fabricate an aesthetically pleasing, strong and stiff 3D-printed bridge. Bridges will be load-tested the evening of April 4 at Kiewit Hall. The bridges will be judged on five criteria: vertical load, vertical stiffness, assembly time, creativity and presentation.
- Surveying: At Lincoln’s Holmes Lake Park on April 4, teams will use standard field and office equipment and procedures to solve common problems encountered in industry.
- Sustainable solutions poster sessions: Students are challenged to incorporate sustainable solutions into everyday problems that engineers may encounter, with the poster sessions running Aug. 4 and 5 at Kiewit Hall.
Other competitions April 3 include concrete bowling, concrete cornhole, a Fundamentals of Engineering quiz bowl and a mystery design competition for teams consisting of first- and second-year students. On April 4, events will include a transportation competition and engineering ethics paper presentations.
Students will also have networking and professional development opportunities during the symposium — including four speakers from industry, pop-up leadership workshops, an outdoor social and a career fair held before the April 5 awards banquet on East Campus.
Nebraska architecture and civil engineering alumna Erleen Hatfield, one of the world’s foremost structural engineers and managing partner of Hatfield Group, will present the keynote address during the awards banquet. Hatfield has overseen many well-known and innovative structural designs, including the camera shutter-like retractable roof at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia; the World Trade Center Museum in New York; and Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.
For more information on the 2025 ASCE Mid-America Student Symposium, contact co-chairs Mia Toigo at 816-328-6882 or mtoigo2@huskers.unl.edu or Anna Schuppel at 269-217-8162 or aschuppel2@huskers.unl.edu, or Joshua Steelman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, at joshua.steelman@unl.edu.
