ECS in Action

Four civil and environmental engineering students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) won first place in the regional American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Sustainable Solutions Competition. The competition took place at the Upstate New York-Canada ASCE Student Symposium at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in mid-April, and the team consisted of Emma Liptrap ’24, Ananya Chandra ’24, Sam Livingston ’24, and Caitlin Spillane ’24. Liptrap served as team captain.  

The ASCE competition challenges students to understand and implement sustainable solutions and the primary goal of the team’s project was to reinvigorate a fictional city’s waterfront. They designed a community center, a mixed-use development, a commercial area, and a waterfront park with pedestrian pathways and a bus loop with accessibility throughout the site. The waterfront’s innovative design also utilized green infrastructure to manage stormwater and mitigate flooding. The design exceeds the “Superior” level of the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure’s ENVISION framework.  

Additionally, a group of seven civil and environmental engineering students participated in the Student Steel Bridge Competition at RPI and the student team consisted of Patrick Alberga ‘25, Henry Bievenue ‘24, Henry Long ‘25, Sumit Mistry ‘24, Maxwell Pozar ‘25, Aaron Shinn ‘25 and Arturo Venegas ‘25. Shinn served as team captain.  

The Steel Bridge Competition challenges students to create a scaled-model steel bridge. The team designed, fabricated, and constructed a 150 lb. and 21-foot-long steel bridge in segments and assembled the segments into a fully functional bridge within a time limit. The bridge was then subjected to various geometry and loading tests during the competition. 

The Sustainable Solutions team has received an official invitation to compete at the 2024 ASCE Student Championships at Brigham Young University in June and is preparing for the national competition.