Emerging from a competitive field of nearly 1400 their peers in an open national competition, the Sustainable Building team snagged the first place trophy in the ASC Region 6&7 Reno Competition, edging out Cal Poly and the University of Florida. 55 universities from 22 states were represented by student teams.
According to the pre-problem statement by the Sustainable Building competition sponsor, Skanska, “In keeping with the goal to drive green thinking into our culture and ways that we work, this problem is meant to show you how jobsites are changing to be more sustainable and resilient, how the construction industry is lessening the negative impact it has on the environment. Teams will focus on construction means and methods this year through the lens of multiple Skanska projects.”
The six-student team completed a problem submission the first full day of the competition and then presented before an industry panel on the second day. Their innovation, the Talkzall, would create a safe, durable real-time translation solution for workers on a construction site. Their presentation received a standing ovation from the industry jurors. The Sustainable Building team was guided by faculty coach Amos Darko.
“The UW students were active participants in all the events at Reno. From the opening night welcome dinner to the robust career fair to the awards ceremony, they showed up in full force in their purple UW shirts,” said Carey Smith, CM faculty coach for the Integrated Project Team. “There were many UW CM program alumni “in the house” at the Reno competition. You could be sure there would be several rooting for the Husky teams in each of the individual events.”
Junior Rachel Ly served as an alternate for the UW Commercial team and participated in the alternate competition, in which alternates from participating schools are brought together to compete in a 10 hour case study of a problem statement. Of the 344 alternate students at the competition, Rachel was one of two awarded Outstanding Student in the alternate competition.
Also wearing purple were UW’s Commercial team, coached by David Salzer, Design-Build coached by Darlene Septelka, and Heavy Civil and Mixed-Use, coached by Giovanni Migliaccio.
