In 2021, the ASCE national Committee on Student Conferences and Competitions decided to realign the student conferences to better fit with the Society’s geographical regions. The change will also result in smaller regions, making it easier for schools to travel to spring competitions. The southeast region, which previously stretched from Puerto Rico to Tennessee, will be split into two regions, and FAMU-FSU’s chapter will join a new region including schools from Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Because 2022 conference host Auburn University is on the western side of the new division, a second school had to be quickly identified to host the 2022 conference in the eastern portion. FAMU-FSU quickly filled the gap by volunteering to host the event for the yet-to-be-named region. Associate Dean Michelle Roddenberry is excited about the opportunity, saying “We hosted the student conference in 2002 and again in 2012. It seemed fitting that we host again in 2022. Our ASCE chapter has a great leadership team this year, and we are looking forward to the challenge of organizing the first in-person event in three years.” Stay tuned for more information, including opportunities to volunteer, donate, and cheer on the FAMU-FSU team.
As the chapter begins preparations for this historic event, 2020-21 Vice President Antoinette Velazquez reflects on the 2021 virtual student conference.
FAMU-FSU ASCE Succeeds at Virtual Student Conference
By Antoinette Velazquez
Despite the pandemic challenges, our ASCE student chapter showed their resiliency at this year’s annual 2021 Southeastern Student Conference.
Historically, the student conference is regarded as our chapter’s biggest event of the year. The spring event typically involves travel to a host school to compete against teams from other civil engineering programs around the southeast, and requires about six months of planning and preparation. Although some components of the conference stayed the same, the entire event was hosted virtually by Vanderbilt University due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual event was held from Thursday, March 25th to Saturday, March 27th.
While there was a newfound lack of social camaraderie and shared experiences amongst conference participants, the student chapter believes that the conference was still a positive experience for most and showed newer members a different side of the club.
For many of the newer members, this was their first exposure to the creative and challenging competitions presented by the conference hosts. From designing a canoe out of concrete to building the most
structurally-sound tower of canned foods, students got to see civil engineering principles applied in real time.
Amidst all of the Zoom events and socially distanced coordinating, our student chapter took home 5th place for the overall conference, winning against more than 20 schools across the southeast. Additionally, our chapter had two 1st place titles: one for the Dueling Words Professional Paper, which focused on civil engineering’s ethical response to COVID-19, and another for Concrete Cornhole, which was won for both our technical paper and cornhole skills.
FAMU-FSU ASCE also placed 5th overall for the Concrete Canoe, and 4th for Can Rodeo, which collected over 300 canned goods that will be donated to a local Tallahassee food shelter.
Thank you to all of the faculty and industry professionals who continue to support our chapter during conference every year!