Mines surveying team takes third in ASCE national competition

Colorado School of Mines took third place in the 2025 National Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute Surveying Competition, hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The competition was part of ASCE’s Civil Engineering Student Championships, held June 27-29 at California Polytechnic State University. Hundreds of engineering students from 50 universities across in the United States, Canada, China and India competed. 

The surveying competition featured 19 teams that qualified for the finals from regional competitions. First place went to University of Toledo, while Purdue University Northwest placed second.

Mines’ survey team members include Caleb Ramsey, Gabriel Zavala, Emily Friesen, James Lupo and Tyler Worley. Jeff Holley, teaching associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the team’s faculty advisor. Holley said in the four years the surveying competition has been in existence, Mines has won at the regional level every year, and finished first, fourth and third three of the four years at the national level. 

“Mines has firmly established itself as a powerhouse of engineering-surveying skills and expertise,” he said. “Our students can solve problems on their feet like no one else. They are amazing and bring tears to my eyes with their success.”

The survey team was one of three that Mines sent to the national championships at Cal Poly, the only university in Region 7 to send teams to the three ASCE society-wide national finals. Region 7 includes schools from Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Along with the surveying competition, Mines teams also competed in Concrete Canoe (placing 15^th overall) and Sustainable Solutions (placing 19^th overall). Mines’ Timber Strong Design Build team also participated in a showcase event at the championships 

At the ASCE Region 7 Rocky Mountain Student Symposium, held April 10-12 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Mines took home four first-place wins, placed second in two others and were recognized as the Overall Symposium Champions.

Following Mines’ success at the regional competition, the team sent a group to compete alongside 42 other teams at the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Student Steel Bridge Competition at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, on May 31.

ASCE, the U.S.’s oldest national civil engineering society, represents from than 160,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries.