Montana Tech ASCE Club takes home third place from sustainable solutions competition in Portland, Oregon
The Montana Tech American Society of Civil Engineers Chapter (ASCE) brought home third place from the Pacific Northwest ASCE Student Symposium (ASCE PNW) held on April 3-5, 2025, in Portland, Oregon.
The ASCE Club competed in the sustainable solutions category. According to contest organizers, the ASCE Sustainable Solution Competition challenges students to develop a stronger understanding of sustainability and learn to incorporate sustainable solutions into everyday problems that engineers incur. Students are encouraged to be creative in their solutions and use all resources available. This year’s topic challenged students to simulate a request for proposal for a city government trying to repurpose a 5-story commercial office building for mixed-use redevelopment, after the building was left vacant due to a shift to a virtual work environment.
“As a faculty member and ASCE club advisor, I’m proud to see our students applying the civil engineering knowledge they’ve gained in the classroom to successfully tackle real-world competition problems, especially those based on scenarios relevant to Montana,” Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Dr. Yilong Liu said. “Throughout the competition, our team engaged with students from other universities, exchanging ideas and gaining insight into how others approached the same challenges. It was a valuable learning experience for everyone involved. I’m especially impressed by our students’ efforts in fundraising to make this trip possible—it truly demonstrated their commitment and initiative. We’re excited and already looking forward to participating in next year’s competition!”
This year's competition team included Captain Evan Johnson, Hanna Darne, Matthew Dang, and Skye Atkins.
“Having attended two symposiums, I’ve found them invaluable for learning about civil engineering and connecting with teammates and other schools,” Darne said. “This year, we had a lot of great sustainable solutions teams from the different schools, which is making me want to run sustainable solutions next year as well. It's awesome to see how different solutions can be for the same problem.”
“I am very happy to have competed and to showcase the hard work our team put in,” Johnson said. “I am thankful everyone's help and support. I hope this can help motivate any who might be interested to participate in the future.”
Atkins descripted the symposium as a positive experience expressing appreciation for his teammates. He added, “Despite being a small group, it was fund and very educational. I’m looking forward to gaining more experience through ASCE.”
Students interested in joining ASCE can find out more by visiting www.mtech.edu.