蜜桃传媒

By Peter Murphy and Alicia Maxwell

The club is made up of three design teams and dozens of students studying within departments across the university, most of whom are in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The steel bridge and concrete canoe teams competed at the regional competition, while the seismic design team competed in its international competition a few weeks earlier.

Historically, the steel bridge design team has a strong performance at the regional symposium, and it was no exception this year, according to the club’s current secretary, John Keeffe.

“I would say our most impressive accomplishment this year would be our steel bridge team’s win at regionals,” said Keeffe, a third-year civil engineering student who will serve as club president next year. “I don’t think the expectations on this year’s team have ever been any higher. Last year, we placed second at nationals­—our best finish ever—and we are looking to improve this year.”

UB ASCE’s steel bridge design team earned first place in most categories, including one that the team has not won in recent history, according to Maxwell Benjamin, UB ASCE’s community outreach chair. 

“We placed first in aesthetics. We don’t usually win that category, so that’s pretty big for us,” Benjamin said.

In addition to aesthetics, the team also earned first place in construction speed, construction economy and structural efficiency; second place in lightness; third place in cost estimation; and first place overall. This marks the team’s sixth consecutive regional title. UB now heads to the national competition for the fifth straight year, aiming to build on its momentum after placing third in 2023 and fourth in 2024.

“We have several members with experience from previous national competitions. Our entire build team was at nationals last year,” Keeffe said. “We have active membership from freshman to seniors, and we are looking to win it all at nationals!”

The steel bridge design team travels to Iowa State 蜜桃传媒 at the end of this month. During both the national and regional competitions, teams must present a proposal for their bridge and compete to build it in real-time.

The concrete canoe team did well during the oral and display presentations but was disqualified for a rule infraction.

For the first time at the regional symposium, student clubs were asked to present a poster highlighting the community service efforts they participated in during the Richard H. Scranton Outstanding Community Service Competition. UB ASCE became the first Region 1 club to receive the award from this competition.

According to ASCE, this honor is “awarded to the chapter that demonstrates the strongest engagement in the community with projects that provide great value to and impact on their local community while engaging a large number of chapter members.”

Each year, the club runs multiple events that involve different organizations within Western New York and UB.

“We listed out six of the big events we did over 2024 and 2025, the events that we help out the community and give back,” said Benjamin, who presented the poster at the symposium. “We had events working with the Red Cross, trail cleanups across Ellicott Creek and resume reviews.”

The number of community events the club held is impressive, but the member participation and volunteer hours illustrate the club’s dedication to serving its community. Overall, 43 club members participated in at least one event during the academic year. The club held 12 events, and club members amassed nearly 500 volunteer hours. 

The seismic design team finished inside the top 25 at its international competition earlier this spring. Their five-foot tower was built at UB and transported to the competition in Berkeley, Calif.

Teams need to submit a proposal based on research into the host city's foundations, describing how the tower would react in the event of an earthquake. 

“Once we complete the design of the tower, the bracing, columns and floor patterns, we need to ship it out,” Keeffe said. “Once we’re at the competition, we make a few last changes, in case anything broke during travel, and then we test on a shake table and present on our overall tower.”

UB ASCE’s seismic design team placed first in poster, fourth in proposal, third in presentation, fourth in seismic prediction, in addition to 24^th overall. Teams throughout the U.S. and other countries like Egypt, Romania and Turkey competed.

“After working on a project for a whole year, it’s really rewarding to see the fruits of your labor,” Benjamin said. “Join ASCE!”