Building Momentum, Community, Bridges, and the Andy War-Hull
Pitt’s ASCE Chapter Takes First Overall at the 2026 ASCE Mid-Atlantic Student Symposium
Each spring at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Student Symposia, engineering students from across the country compete in events that capture the essence of civil engineering. They design and build bridges, survey land, solve problems, and create and race concrete canoes. They also have fun.
This year at the 2026 ASCE Mid-Atlantic Student Symposium, the University of Pittsburgh ASCE Student Chapter saw 55 of its members compete, its best participation to date, and the collective effort paid off. In a field of almost thirty university student chapters, Pitt placed first overall.
The competition was held April 17-19, 2026, at the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, in Johnstown, PA. The event fostered community across teams and universities and provided students with valuable opportunities to use their hands and apply their learning.
"Our teams overcame so many obstacles and put in so much hard work this year,” said Mae Cook, a fourth-year civil engineering student and incoming president of Pitt’s ASCE student chapter. “The team captains took last year's judge's feedback and focused on improvement. They enhanced the teams' strengths while also optimizing the needed areas. Their passion for their work could be felt by everyone, which I think contributed to high participation and placement."
Across events, the Pitt team shined:
- The Concrete Canoe team placed first overall, earning qualification for the national concrete canoe competition June 25 – 27 at Fairmont State University, West Virginia.
- The 3D Printed Bridge team placed first in presentation and design and second place overall.
- The Surveying team placed first in field tasks, third place in the Civil 3D map competition, and second place overall.
- In its first year with an entirely student-led team, Sustainable Solutions received strong feedback from judges on their work related to water cooling, energy use, and stormwater treatment.
- The Steel Bridge team achieved its best build time in more than six years, successfully passed load testing, and improved in all but one category relative to previous years.
“Over the last couple of years, Pitt’s Concrete Canoe has always been one to watch,” said Kate Volna, who graduated this spring with her degree in civil engineering and who served as Project Management Captain for the team. “I love watching the progression and feeling relief once the boat finally gets placed in the water. We design, pour, construct, stain, seal, and transport this boat in just a couple months.”
In a nod to Pittsburgh, the team named their new boat the Andy War-Hull. During competition, they dressed up like the famous artist to cheer on the rowers as they sprinted or competed in the slalom event.
In addition to placing first overall, the team tied for first place in the technical proposal and first in presentation and the men’s sprint and slalom. The team placed second in display and in women’s slalom, and third in women’s sprint.
“Last year, watching the nationals made us extra ambitious, and it’s truly amazing to see how we’ve achieved them,” said Volna. “I am extremely grateful for all our faculty, staff, mentors, and especially alumni who still check in on our team. They are our biggest support and help us succeed.”
On land, the 3D Printed Bridge team had its best showing yet in the symposium’s newest event. “Our team spends the year designing a bridge, creating it in SolidWorks, and then printing it with a 3D printer,” said Chase Ferraro, who is beginning his fourth year in civil engineering and served as the team’s co-captain. The bridge must hold 70 pounds.
Ferraro added, “One of our goals was to improve our presentation skills as a team, and I feel we met that after receiving the best presentation award.
Like its 3D-printed counterpart, the Steel Bridge team also gained momentum this year. Instead of designing and printing a bridge, the competition involves developing a 20-foot model of a bridge capable of holding 2,500 pounds. The team builds the pieces and assembles them at the competition on deadline.
“This year is the second year in a row where we qualified in the competition,” said Jobi Cook, who graduated this spring with a degree in civil engineering. “These last two years, we have improved our build time to meet the 45-minute hard deadline with a build time of 43 minutes last year and 32 minutes this year.”
For Cook, who has completed two internships with a general contractor and has worked as a heavy equipment mechanic, the opportunity to use his hands to design, fabricate, and construct a bridge has been hugely rewarding.
This year’s competition also saw the return of a Pitt Sustainable Solutions team, which hadn’t competed for three years. Sustainable Solutions engages students to solve a real-world problem through the lens of sustainability. Teams develop a proposal and a poster and present their solution.
“We wanted to bring a sustainability-focused team to Pitt and give other students interested in sustainability a chance to find a place within ASCE,” said Rose Genco, a fourth-year civil engineering student and co-captain of the team.
“The challenge this year was to design a sustainable data center,” Genco added. “As this was our first year competing as a team, we did not expect to place well, but we achieved seventh out of fourteen teams!”
Beyond restarting the team and exceeding their expectations, the team built community. “My favorite part about participating in the competition was how close we all became,” Genco said. “We bonded throughout the year and even more at the competition.”
“This achievement would be impossible without the extraordinary efforts of our students and mentors,” said Vikas Khanna, professor and interim chair of civil and environmental engineering. “The outstanding leadership, commitment, and countless hours of work from our student leaders made this success possible.”
The student leaders hope that the momentum from this year’s success will continue to generate more interest in Pitt’s ASCE student chapter and expand the community that it fuels. As Ferraro said, “ASCE has provided me with so many new friendships and opportunities. The competition teams are an easy way to meet new people and get involved in your major and future career path.”
Our heartfelt thanks to the Coull family for supporting this student group through the James Molyneaux Coull and Carolyn Austin Coull Student Resource Fund.