UMass Amherst Hosts ASCE Northeast Regional Student Symposium
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On April 17 and 18, the UMass Amherst student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) hosted the ASCE Northeast Regional Student Symposium (NESS). Approximately 400 students from 20 different universities gathered on campus for the conference.
NESS brought these students together for a full lineup of competitions—including concrete canoe, steel bridge building, surveying, sustainable solutions, community service posters, and engineering ethics papers—all designed to challenge their technical skills and collaborative spirit.
The two most hands-on competitions are the concrete canoe and steel bridge, which involve student teams building and racing canoes made entirely out of concrete, and student teams conceptualizing and building a scale-model steel bridge to span approximately 20 feet and carry 2,500 pounds.
The concrete canoe competition took place at Lake Wyola, while the steel bridge competition took place in the Mullins Center.
Sarah Matthews, Secretary of the ASCE UMass Amherst chapter and co-organizer of the conference, reflected: "It was an honor to host so many schools to celebrate all the hard work everyone has put into their designs. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to represent both UMass and ASCE. It was great to see all the camaraderie between schools even in a competition setting."
ASCE is an engineering society devoted to advancing technologies, encouraging lifelong learning, developing civil engineering leaders, and advocating infrastructure and environmental stewardship. It represents more than 160,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the nation’s oldest engineering society.