Engineering team beat nine other West Coast teams to win state competition

With a first place regional victory under their belt, Cal State Long Beach’s “Construction Engineering Management Team” prepares to compete in the Associated General Contractors National Student Championships next week.

The construction team won the “Design Build” category in the competition. They beat out nine other universities from California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.

“When we heard our team called for first place it was a moment of relief. It showed us that the many hours of hard work and preparation were worthwhile,” team member Jeffrey Goodermote said.

For the competition, which took place in Reno, Nev, the team members played the role of a contractor called “Pyramid Builders” who bid on a project.

“The problem statements proposed at the competition are real projects the sponsor companies developed and built,” engineering professor Elhami Nasr said in a press release. “It took them several weeks to prepare, while we have 24 hours to get ready,” he said.

The teams were given the problem early in the morning and were required to submit a complete proposal by midnight. A complete proposal consists of the team’s design solution, a detailed cost estimate, in-depth preconstruction and construction schedules, a site logistics plan and their project management approach in executing the project.

With various deadlines throughout the day, teams were forced to effectively work together in order to ensure completion of the proposal without overlooking any major components in a timely manner.

“We all had our assigned roles and specific strengths and with a collaborative effort we were able to put together a winning proposal,” team member Dustin House said. “We’re going to keep that energy flowing towards nationals and bring home a victory for [CSULB’s] Construction Engineering Management program.”

With the experience the team gained at the regional competition, members continue to work toward preparing as much material as possible with the limited information available to them regarding the project.

“We’re modifying our proposal from the Reno competition to fit the needs and requirements of nationals” Goodermote said. “We are continuing to add building blocks to our pyramid to create a stronger proposal.”

Considering most of the team members are full-time students and are already working in the construction industry, finding time to meet as a group has proven to be a challenge.

The construction team’s dedication in this year’s competition has clearly paid off, as shown with the regional victory.

“This was really a team effort,” Nasr said. “It took a lot of commitment from everybody, spending their own time, their weekends, and their nights getting ready.”

Team captain John Hallgarth has set his sights on competing on a national level.

“All the hard work really paid off looking back on what we accomplished. We are champions of the west coast. Next, the nation,” Hallgarth said. “We are confident going into nationals since we’ve already beat last years national champions Sacramento State.”

The team is comprised of construction engineering management majors John Hallgarth, Scott Mosier, Nicholas Tasich, Alec Grassel, Dustin House, Jeffrey Goodermote and alternate Ismar Ibrahimpasic. Engineering professors Elhami Nasr, Tang-Hung Nguyen, Tariq Shehab, Michael Pulley and Gary Rafferty coached the team of students.

AGC is a full-service trade association representing more than 32,000 general contractors, specialty contractors and service providers and suppliers.