On February 5th, The Myers-Lawson School of Construction sent three student teams to the Associated Schools of Construction Student Competition and Construction Management Conference in Reno, Nevada. 21 students represented the Myers-Lawson School of Construction and competed against numerous universities across the United States. The Project Management Team consisting of Joe O’Neal, Brian Maloney, Matt O’Neill, Kurtis Meyer, John Weiss, Johnny Micka and Alley LaBossiere walked away with a 1st place win for Virginia Tech.
The Project Management problem statement was sponsored by DPR Construction. The 14 competing teams in the Project Management category were instructed to act as if they were a part of the DPR Preconstruction Team. They were given a project by DPR and asked to evaluate the project and report to DPR’s upper management executives on whether DPR should accept the job. Their competition game day began at 6:00am where they were all briefed about their assigned project. They were allowed to begin actual work at 7:00am.
Their project given by DPR was for an office building for a confidential healthcare client on an active campus with tie-ins to existing nearby structures. The team had to review and analyze construction contracts, assess project specific risk and how to mitigate it, review subcontracts and select subcontractors, create an in-depth general conditions, generate a full schedule, develop a site logistics plan, complete a MEP constructibility review and handle each of the eight scenarios that came in throughout the day. Finally, they had to conduct a Red Zone Analysis to determine if DPR should take on the project. “The ASC Competition has taught me more about construction than almost anything else in my college career. Sometimes when someone asks me about it I describe it as a Capstone class compressed into 15 hours. It is lots of work and is very draining but is also very rewarding,” Construction Engineering and Management student Brian Maloney said.
They worked on the project for a total of 15 hours with 20 minutes to spare before the deadline. The team then stayed up until 2:00am to work on their presentation that was due at 6:00am that morning. “The Virginia Tech Team finished the 15-hour day with 20 minutes to spare, due to proper time management and planning prior to game-day. This was a huge feat for us, as most teams are typically running to turn in their final deliverable,” Building Construction student Joe O’Neal said.
“The thought of competing against some of the best construction schools in the nation only drove us to work harder through the whole competition and it was awesome to see it pay off in the end. We couldn't have done it without every single person on the team, and especially our Coach/Instructor [Dr. Bob Muir] who helped us prepare for it,” Building Construction student Kurtis Meyer said. The Project Management team was awarded a 1st place trophy which is a championship belt with the names of all previous winning teams. The trophy will be on display in Bishop-Favrao Hall until next year’s ASC student competition. Congrats to all of our student teams!
Virginia Tech ASC Reno 2019 Teams
Sustainability Team
- Connor Rogers: Building Construction
- Justin Gravatt: Building Construction
- Chad Walmer: Building Construction
- Alyssa Davis: Building Construction
- Matt Garrison: Building Construction
- Amber Kraak: Building Construction
- Ann Marie Paul: Building Construction
Concrete Team
- Daniel Whitley: Construction Engineering and Management
- Nate Fender: Building Construction
- Dave Harrington: Building Construction & Real Estate
- Daniel Cruz: Building Construction
- Matt Greene: Construction Engineering and Management
- Don Riblet: Building Construction
- Chris Mitchell: Construction Engineering and Management
Project Management Team
- Joe O'Neal: Building Construction
- Brian Maloney: Construction Engineering and Management
- Matt O'Neill: Construction Engineering and Management
- Kurtis Meyer: Building Construction
- John Weiss: Construction Engineering and Management
- Johnny Micka: Building Construction & Real Estate
- Ally LaBossiere: Building Construction
