Three construction engineering (ConE) student teams placed first in the 20th Annual Associated Schools of Construction Region IV Student Management Competition held October 25-27 in Nebraska City, Neb. Iowa State teams in the contest’s commercial, design-build, and residential divisions placed first. An Iowa State team placed third in the heavy/civil category. Twenty-six teams representing 12 universities from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota competed.
During the competition, six-person teams have 18 hours to develop a comprehensive proposal for a mock request for proposals (RFP). All mock RFPs were based on actual construction projects by professional contractors. Teams then give a 20-minute presentation to a panel of industry judges. Before the competition, teams were given six weeks to assign project roles and investigate real-world projects – all outside the students’ regular class schedule.
Commercial team’s mock RFP was for a $550 million project for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, the 500,000 square-foot laboratory located in Manhattan, Kan. The winning commercial team members are ConE seniors Russell Whitney (team captain), Dylan Dorsey, Aaron Elston, Jacob Schaefer, and Alex Toth, and junior Daniel Dammann. Whitney attributes the team’s win to diligent preparation, including talking to professionals of the construction industry who walked them through a proposal process.
Design-build team responded to a mock RFP for the Lincoln Gym and Classroom addition for the Coldwater School District, located in California. The project cost $16.5 million. The winning design/build team members are seniors Trevor Otto (team captain), Tom Gorman, and Nick Woodard; junior Brian Hampel, sophomore Lucas Johnson, and architecture senior Dane Askelsen. Otto says that equal participation by each team member gave them a strong lead in the competition. “In construction engineering classes, we learned to work as a team,” Otto says. “We felt comfortable enough to rely on and challenge each other to produce the best presentation.”
Heavy/civil team created a mock proposal for the $33 million Cannelton Hydroelectric Project, located in Hawesville, Ky. The project consisted of building the cofferdam and mass excavation for a hydroelectric dam on the Ohio River. Heavy/highway team members are seniors Grant Reimers (team captain), Jordan Einck, Taylor Puelz-Burgin and Joe Winter; juniors Joel Robinson; and freshman Matthew Decker.
Residential team produced a mock proposal for a low-rent multi-family housing development, Meadow View Estates located in Peculiar, Mo. Their work included a site plan, schedule, construction estimates, and financial pro forma. The project cost $3.9 million and contained six buildings with 34 apartments. The winning residential team members are seniors Blake Carolan (team captain), and Ben Swenson, juniors Michael Donlin, Sean Heinz and Drew Lensch; and sophomore John Lemke. Carolan says that public speaking practice in construction engineering classes prepared them for the oral presentation. “I felt that our team delivered the presentation comfortably and clearly, which goes a long way.”
Within the past 11 years, Iowa State has placed first in divisions 27 times.
Larry Cormicle, (BSConE’78, MSConE’10) senior lecturer and Glenn H. DeStigter Scholar in Construction Engineering, coached all four teams prior to and during the competition. In 2011 Iowa State student teams placed first in all divisions, which helped Cormicle win the international ASC Outstanding Educator that year.