BCT Represents UMass at Renowned Construction Competitions
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Students in UMass’s Building and Construction Technology (BCT) program, offered through the College of Natural Sciences’s Department of Environmental Conservation, recently represented the university at two prominent competitions recognized in the construction industry. Senior lecturers Fernando Romero and Ho-Sung Kim accompanied students to the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Competition and the Annual National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Student Competition, respectively.
The ASC Competition
The Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Competition seeks to “prepare the next generation of construction industry leaders for the rapid and exciting challenges that [builders] will face in the immediate future.”
The ASC Northeast Region includes colleges and universities that offer four-year degrees in construction engineering and management in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
There are five competition categories: Commercial, Pre-Construction, Design-Build, Heavy Civil, and Open (Concrete). Construction companies sponsor all categories, and the ASC holds a career fair during the competition, allowing students to interview for full-time jobs or internships. Typically, UMass teams compete in the Commercial and Pre-Construction categories.
“The ASC Competition can provide a non-traditional learning environment for students and enhance their learning,” argued Romero. “As an educator, the BCT team and I have supported the benefits of participation in intercollegiate competitions. Many students in the U.S. have various opportunities for intercollegiate students' competition to apply their knowledge of real-world problems.”
Romero explained that competing teams have no previous knowledge of the documents that describe each competition’s "problem statement.” Students are sequestered in a hotel room, which is intended to simulate an office space. Competing teams (comprising six students per team) are given 20 hours after first receiving the problem statement, and they work non-stop to create answers and solutions. Proposals are submitted to a group of construction company executives, who act as judges. During the competition, students defend their proposals to the judges in front of an audience.
“The first UMass participation was in 2019, when we got last place,” Romero recalls. But the university improved its standing with increased investment. “In 2020, during the pandemic, I decided to prepare the students better by Zoom for the competition, and we got sixth place. In 2021, I created the course ASC Competition (BCT 392C) to prepare the students formally, and we got third place that year.” This trend continued: in 2022, they came in second place; and in 2023, UMass’s investment paid off, when the BCT team came in first place in the Pre-Construction competition.
The 2024 competition took place in Albany, New York this past November. UMass participated in the Commercial and Pre-Construction events. Romero sees significant advantages in having students participate in competitions such as ASC. “My main objective in participating in the ASC Competition is to enable students to integrate the knowledge gained from the BCT undergrad program.”
The NAHB Student Competition
The Annual National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Student Competition is one of the highlights of the NAHB International Builders’ Show. The event “gives students the opportunity to apply skills learned in the classroom to a real construction company by completing a management project/proposal.” As with the ASC competition, proposals are judged by construction company executives.
In last year’s competition, the UMass team placed seventh in the Custom/Small Build category. In the semester leading up to the event, the students prepared by developing a business proposal that included market analysis, product design, construction management, project management, financial and risk analysis, and sustainability related to a property in Woodstock, Georgia.
This year, UMass attended the competition in Las Vegas, NV, from February 24-25, and placed sixth in the Custom/Small Build category. This category “exposes students to a small-scale residential construction project from concept to closing,” explained Ho-Sung Kim. “Teams identify a home building opportunity in a specific geographic area, focusing on the best opportunity for a small builder to be successful and grow their business. The team included five students from the BCT program, the Department of Architecture, and the Isenberg School of Management.”
Learn more about the ASC Competition and the NAHB Student Competition.