skip to main content

10th Forensic Engineering Congress

Seattle, Washington | –

Student Competition

“Three Minutes” Failure Case Study Competition

Please note submissions are now closed.

All students, who are currently enrolled in universities in the United States majoring in architecture/architectural engineering, civil engineering, construction engineering, and construction management, are invited to participate in a “three minutes” failure case study competition to win a free registration and travel expenses to the ASCE 10th Forensic Engineering Congress, in Seattle, WA on November 1 – 4, 2024. Students have three minutes to present one failure case study of a civil infrastructure or a building failure with three PowerPoint slides. The competition encourages participants’ communication skills through effectively presenting a failure case study in just three minutes.

Three finalists of the student competition will win free registrations for ASCE 10th Forensic Engineering Congress and will present their case studies during the award luncheon on Sunday November 3, 2024 to compete for cash prizes. Travel will be reimbursed through conference sponsorship including air fares and accommodations.

  • First Place $500
  • Second Place $300
  • Third Place $200

3 min. presentation

  • Student Competition Registration opens: 9/23/2024
  • Student Competition Registration closes: 9/30/2024
  • Preliminary presentations and/or recording submission deadline: 10/7/2024
  • Three finalists announced: 10/10/2024

Finals (3 min. presentation + 2 min. Q&A)

  • 10th Forensic Engineering Congress Awards Luncheon November 3, 2024

Suggested Contents in the “Three Minutes” presentation

  • Describe the structure and relevant conditions
  • What happened?
  • Why did the failure occur?
  • How was the root cause of the failure identified?
  • What lessons were learned?

In addition to images and words in the presentation, computational simulations, animations, and videos can be incorporated on the one side PowerPoint. The presentations will be recorded and managed by ASCE FED Education Committee. With presenters’ permissions, selected recordings will be published on Vimeo or a YouTube Chanel managed by the committee. Presenters should respect intellectual property and appropriate reference sources. Unacceptable or unlawful use of intellectual property during the competition will not be tolerated.

Please submit your questions or inquiries if any to Dr. Rui Liu at [email protected].

Travel Funding & Reimbursement Policy

ASCE staff will register and reserve a hotel room for each of the three selected finalists upon receipt of contact information and travel dates. ASCE will pay directly for hotel room nights and applicable fees and taxes. Each finalist will be responsible for incidentals if applicable.

Finalists will be responsible for booking travel arrangements to and from the conference. ASCE will reimburse each of the three finalists after the conference for transportation in accordance with ASCE’s Rules of Policy and Procedure, as noted below. Finalists will not receive per diem. Requests for reimbursement must be submitted to ASCE staff not later than sixty (60) days after the associated conference and must be accompanied by receipts for airline or train travel.

The cost of transportation may be reimbursed for air, ship, train, or motor vehicle travel, but not in excess of the applicable portion of a fourteen (14) day advance purchase, roundtrip, coach airfare ticket. Reimbursement shall be provided for airfare that utilizes the most cost-effective route of travel to and from the meeting location. Mileage reimbursement for use of motor vehicles shall not exceed the IRS allowable rate. With pre-approval, exceptions may be made for travel originating in and returning to different locations, or for travel originating in and returning to locations other than the primary residence of the traveler. Exceptions may also be made when special circumstances result in higher transportation costs.

jump to top