Civil engineering students from as far as China and Canada will be on campus this weekend for the international Mid-Pacific Conference April 3-5 with various competitions open for public viewing at the Save Mart Center and Millerton Lake.

Hosted this year by Fresno State’s Lyles College of Engineering for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the annual event provides civil engineering students the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and technical knowledge through career-oriented events such as concrete canoe, steel bridge, water treatment, transportation engineering and geo-wall competitions.

With a membership of 145,000 members, ASCE is the oldest national engineering society of its kind. Fresno

engineering-students

Engineering Students

State students are hosting and organizing this year’s events beginning tonight with preliminary meetings on campus.

On Friday, competitions are scheduled for 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Presentations are held throughout the day with public display of projects from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on the Save Mart Center main concourse.

On Saturday, the concrete canoe competition moves to Millerton Lake (Millerton Road, 20 miles northeast of

Fresno) at 6 a.m. with dunk tests, endurance races, sprint heats and durability judging throughout the day. Also, mini games such as concrete bowling, a peanut butter eating competition and tug-o-war will be held in between the canoe events.

An awards banquet from 7-10 p.m. Saturday at the Fresno Convention Center concludes the conference (not open to public).  See full schedule.

Each competition challenges students in construction, design and application of knowledge and technical skill, said Kelsey Hoffman, conference chair.

“Participants will expand upon their budgeting, designing and communicating, which is essential to their civil engineering professions,” said Hoffman, a junior civil engineering major from Clovis.

Laval University of Canada and Tonji University of China are among private and public universities attending the Mid-Pacific Conference that includes multiple regions from throughout the United States.

Other schools participating include California State University campuses Chico, Sacramento, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Humboldt State, San Francisco State and San Jose State; Delhi Technological University; Santa Clara University; University of the Pacific; University of California-Berkeley; University of California, Davis; and University of Nevada-Reno.

Events except for the banquet are free but parking is $10 for at Millerton Lake and free parking at the Save Mart Center.

For more information, contact Hoffman at khoffman194@mail.fresnostate.edu.

(University Communications news assistants Jodi Raley contributed to this report).

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