From concrete canoes to timber buildings, Mines student teams win big at civil engineering competition

Colorado School of Mines’ student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers dominated at the regional Rocky Mountain ASCE Student Symposium, held April 10-12 at Colorado State University.

Mines students took home four first-place wins and placed second in two others, leading to Mines being recognized as the Overall Symposium Champions.

Mines’ Concrete Canoe, Timber Strong, Surveying, Sustainable Solutions and Construction teams will all advance to the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships in June at California Polytechnic State University. The Steel Bridge team will also advance to the National SSBC finals in May at Iowa State University.

Mines team members and their finishes at the regional competition include:

• Technical paper, first place: Clara Henckler-Davis
• Non-Technical (Mead Paper), outstanding performance: Victoria Kowalczyk
• Sustainable Solutions, first place: Achan Panda, Tyler Folkmann, Cinnamon Clausen, James Lupo and Clara Henckler-Davis
• Construction Institute Competition, first place:  Andrew Hunter and Kyro Baker
• Concrete Canoe, first place:  Trudi Paetzold, Dylan Haworth, Alexis Dobyns, Maggie Wells, Kyle Peinado, Jay Long and Riley Elliott
• Steel Bridge, second place: Matt Dobberthien, Reagan Fisher, Keegan Terrell, Sam Benschoter and Miguel Gutierrez
• Timber Strong, first place: Tyler Worley, Lucas Baum, Jordi Ramos Nunez, Gavin Nelson, Zaid Safian, Maddie Gotlieb, Madelyn Riley and Alex Reil

“Our team demonstrated great creativity and passion for wood design and construction,” said Hongyan Liu, teaching associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and adviser to the Timber Strong team.