After winning the Central Northeast Region in the 2018 Design-Build Student Competition, a team of MSOE students was one of only three regional teams selected to compete at the national level.  

On Nov. 8 the students traveled to New Orleans to compete in front of a live jury and audience at the Design-Build Conference and Expo. They fielded questions from a panel of industry interviewers about their design and construction plans for a two- to three-floor student residence hall on an American college campus. They took second place in the competition which was sponsored by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA).  

The competition began at the regional level with 36 teams of students from 27 universities from across the country competing. Nine regional winners were selected to compete in the second phase of the competition based on their response to the initial RFQ. An RFP was then issued to those nine and the top three finalists were selected based on their responses.  

Congratulations to team members Habiba Aly, Matt Blain, Megan Hanelt, Mike Osep, Alex Olson, Cassidy Jackson and Megan Weidner. They are all students in the Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management Department. Dr. Jeong Woo, professor and construction management program director, is the team’s advisor.  

DBIA is the only organization that defines, teaches and promotes best practices in design-build. DBIA’s 2018 National Design-Build Student Competition regional winners represent MSOE, Montana Tech, Iowa State University, University of Arizona, University of Berkeley, Roger Williams University, Seminole State University, Oklahoma State University and University of Washington.