pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

A student team from PacTrans consortium partner Washington State University took first place in the recent Associated Schools of Construction competition, the largest construction management competition in the U.S.

Despite this year’s shift to a virtual format, almost 1,100 students from 47 universities and 19 states participated. The competition is comprised of ten-hour days where participants are required solve two rounds of problems that have been generated by problem sponsors.

The WSU team, coached by associate professor of design and construction, Jason Peschel, competed in the commercial category with twelve other teams and ultimately won first place. The student team included Meghan Smith, Hunter Hohman, Kali Saueressig, Cory Condon, Austin Cornell, and Georgia Robinson with alternates Grace Lium and RJ Clemons. The students used construction management skills such as scheduling, estimating, site logistics, site safety, and technical writing to develop a proposal for a real-life construction problem.

“This is the third time in the last decade the WSU commercial team has won first place at the competition,” said Peschel. “There is such strong competition that having a team place is a wonderful statement about the strength of the program, the coaches, and the students.  To see a team overcome all of the challenges associated with performing collaboratively in a virtual environment is amazing. We are so proud of this team’s ability to adapt to the pandemic-related constraints!”

“We are extremely thankful for the fantastic industry support that we have here at WSU,” Peschel said. “The practice problem sponsors completely reimagined the problems in an effort to emulate the two-day format.  Our students are fortunate to get such amazing preparation for the competition. They are gaining invaluable skills and experiences that will bring them success in their careers.”