Every great teacher or coach is always looking for a new way to motivate their students.
Eric Steward, faculty adviser for the ASCE student chapter at the University of South Alabama, seems to have found a winning – if slightly extreme and notably permanent – idea.
“This was probably 10 years ago,” Steward said, recalling a fateful meal with his South Alabama students during the annual ASCE student conference.
“They said, ‘Hey, Dr. Steward, if we ever make nationals, would you get a tattoo?’ And I said, ‘You know what, if you make it to nationals, I will get a tattoo of a bridge or a canoe – whichever competition you make it in – and the year you did it.’”
That’s right, Eric Steward promised he would get a tattoo if his South Alabama student chapter ever qualified a team for an ASCE Society-wide competition.
And a decade later … well, it’s time to find a tattoo artist.
As ASCE prepares to host its first Civil Engineering Student Championships weekend, June 10-12, at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, South Alabama is preparing its concrete canoe team to travel north for its first Society-wide competition appearance.
“These last couple years since the pandemic, our students have really taken on an attitude of excellence,” said Steward, noting South Alabama’s steel bridge team also qualified for the first time for the Student Steel Bridge Competition National Finals.
“They have decided that they want to bring in underclassmen, teach freshmen and sophomores, and start to build it up.
“It’s equated to success in a way that I did not honestly anticipate – which I’m really, really grateful for.”
The 2023 ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships will feature the 36th annual Concrete Canoe Competition finals, along with the Society-wide finals of the Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute Surveying Competition and the Sustainable Solutions Competition: Envisioning a New Downtown. Each Society-wide competition draws its field from the schools that perform best at the various student symposia held throughout the spring.
And while the competitions – and accompanying tattoos – are fun, Steward’s focus during his 12 years as faculty adviser at South Alabama has always been on the larger lessons they teach.
“The big picture is to give students an opportunity to learn the skills that are really not taught in the classroom,” Steward said. “If you can learn how to manage, how to work with people, how to budget, and handle scheduling and conflict management among personalities, you’re going to be much more successful in your career.
“To me, that’s what ASCE student chapters are all about.”
As for the tattoo, Steward is making good on his promise.
“We’ve had some discussion about design, but we haven’t scheduled a time yet,” Steward said. “My thought is we might find a tattoo place at nationals.
“So when in Rome … go get a tattoo. Let’s just go make it happen.”
The following teams qualified for the 2023 ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships, June 10-12, at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville:
University of Florida student chapter Concrete Canoe
University at Buffalo
University of California, Berkeley
California Polytechnic State University, San Louis Obispo
Clemson University
Fairmont State University
University of Florida
Université Laval
Lipscomb University
Louisiana Tech University
Milwaukee School of Engineering
University of Missouri–Kansas City
University of Nevada, Reno
Rowan University
University of South Alabama
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
University of Texas at Tyler
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Western Kentucky University
Youngstown State University
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley student chapter UESI Surveying
University of Akron
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Colorado School of Mines
Florida Institute of Technology
Georgia Southern University
Louisiana State University
New Mexico State University
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Purdue University Northwest
Saint Louis University
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Utah State University
Western Kentucky University
Georgia Tech student chapter Sustainable Solutions
Auburn University
Bannari Amman Institute of Technology
Brigham Young University
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Central Florida
George Mason University
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Houston
University of Illinois at Chicago
Johns Hopkins University
University of Kentucky
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Louisiana Tech University
Missouri State University
Montana State University
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Keep up with the 2023 ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships on social media with #ASCEChampionships.
