MSU ASCE Student Chapter Success at the 2026 ASCE Gulf Coast Student Symposium

The Mississippi State University (MSU) American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Student Chapter gave a solid performance at the 2025 ASCE Gulf Coast Student Symposium which was held on March 12-14, 2026 at the University of Alabama. Hundreds of students from 13 universities in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi competed in several competitions at the symposium. The MSU Student Chapter earned a top three place in 8 of the 13 competitions they participated in. Josh Pace, MSU ASCE Student Chapter President, stated “I thought we did well with what we competed in. I was proud of everyone’s efforts.”

Led by Team Captain Josh Artman with support from team members Garrison Ashley, David Wallace, and Lee Hayes, MSU placed 1^st Overall in the Construction Institute (CI) competition. The accomplishment was achieved despite the MSU Student Chapter having only participated in this competition for the 2^nd time. The CI competition is a major competition at the Symposium which requires teams to work on a construction engineering design project within a two-hour time frame. Subsequently, the teams present their design to judges. The recognized Best Speaker from last year’s competition, Jacob Fox, also provided crucial support to prime the team prior to the competition. Josh Artman said “We were honored to be able to represent Mississippi State well and look forward to representing the MSU School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the future. We appreciate the opportunity to attend and showcase what we’ve learned here at State.”

On a similar note, MSU participated in another major competition called ASCE Sustainable Solutions for only the second time in recent years where the team finished in 2^nd Place this year and placed last year. This year’s competition required teams to make an effective design for a new data center land development project within a five-month planning period. This year’s competition was more complex than previous years where designs for multiple water sources (cooling water, stormwater, wastewater, potable water and groundwater) had to be incorporated into the project which was also being assessed under ENVISION certification requirements. Team Members for MSU included (from left to right in the picture shown to the left) Robert Wells, Lia Knighton, Cody Cook, Lucy Kent, Jacob Rushing, Benjamen Hutto, and Christopher Venables. Along with the 2^nd Place Overall finish, MSU received top awards for Best Site Resiliency, Best Cooling, and Fan Favorite. Team Captain, Benjamin Hutto remarked “The ASCE Gulf Coast Symposium was a great experience for the MSU Sustainable Solutions team. The local competitions were fun and provided a lot of valuable learning opportunities. I definitely feel like a better civil engineering student for having gone.” Christopher Venables’ drive did not stop there as he was also awarded 1^st Place in the Equipment Rodeo Competition.

The long-time success story of MSU placing in the Surveying Competition once again held true.  This year’s team placed 2^nd Overall. Team members included (from left to right in the picture shown on the right) Gracie Ward, Madison Santinelli (Co-Captain), Miles Brunson, Morgan Roberts (Co-Captain), Kaitlyn Sanborn, and Emma Nicholson. Madison Santinelli made additional contributions by serving as Vice President of MSU’s ASCE Student Chapter this year. Madison noted “I’m proud of our team coming together. Each member showed their strengths in producing a strong outcome.” The competition advisor was former MSU Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Member Hub King. As part of the preparatory process for this major competition, the team frequently met with Mr. King to practice surveying fundamentals over multiple months prior to the symposium.

The Concrete Canoe team was led by Josh Hamner and Mackenzie Burnett, with the support of eleven other team members: Cody Armes, Haley Ewing, Kennedy Harper, Sydney Howell, Michael Jernigan, Benjamin Moore, Joshua Pace, Carley Page, Leonardo Rodriguez-Cano, Sienna Steinke, and Brooke Vasuta. This year’s team started from scratch as MSU did not participate last year and yet delivered an impressive performance in design, aesthetics, construction, rowing, and presentation. MSU alumni, including former competition winners, engaged with the current team through a series of meetings and provided valuable guidance that helped shape this year’s efforts. Team members were also interviewed by local news media (see the segment on MSU Concrete Canoe at the 11:30 mark in the linked video). Co-captain Mackenzie Burnett highlighted that “This year’s Concrete Canoe team created memorable experiences, learning opportunities, and a canoe that, while held stitched and taped together, competed against other universities at the regional ASCE symposium, earning praise from the judges and fellow schools.

Abby Potrament’s ability to achieve success across engineering disciplines was clearly demonstrated when she placed 3^rd in the ASCE Paper and Presentation Competition. The topic for this year’s competition was Engineering the Public Welfare: How civil engineers engage and advance communities through ethical infrastructure design in accordance with the ASCE Code of Ethics. Abby added “Participating in the symposium paper competition was a unique opportunity for me to explore ethical engineering practice within another discipline and broaden my perspective on serving the public through engineering work. I’m grateful to Mississippi State ASCE for this opportunity and honored to have placed third among such strong competitors.”

There were several other local competitions in which MSU had placed, as described below:

• PCI Prestress Mini-Beam (2^nd Place) – Team Members: Calvin Cole (Captain), Matthew Joyner, and Kellan Castleberry (shown in the top picture to the right from left to right)
• Muddy Waters (2^nd Place) – Team Members: Diego Galindo Cruz, Daniel McEachin, Josh Pace (Captain), and Leonardo Rodriguez-Cano (shown in the bottom picture to the right)
• Tug of War (3^rd Place) – Team Members: Cody Armes, Kennedy Harper, Benjamen Hutto, Benjamin Moore, Leonardo Rodriquez-Cano, Jacob Rushing, and Christopher Venable (shown in the picture at the top of the next page)

Next year’s 2027 Symposium is planned to be held at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Undergraduate students enrolled in any degree program at MSU who are interested in participating in a major competition next year should notify Dr. Thomas Lynn (tlynn@cee.msstate.edu) as soon as possible and no later than April 30^th, 2026. Major competitions at next year’s symposium may include the following:

• ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition
• AISC/ASCE Student Steel Bridge Competition
• ASCE UESI Surveying Competition
• ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition
• Timber-Strong Design Build Competition
• Construction Institute Competition
• 3D Printing Competition

Submitted by: Thomas Lynn