Civil engineering students place second and third in construction competition

By Megan Lantz
04/16/19

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Estimating Competition Team took home a second
and third place victory in the Construction Association of Western Pennsylvania (CAWP)
Estimating Competition on February 14-16 in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.

This year’s competition marked the third annual CAWP Student Estimating Competition since
the competition began in February of 2017. Penn State has participated every year since its
founding. This year, nine teams from five universities showed up to put their skills to the test.
Penn State’s teams, Penn State Main Team 1 and Penn State Main Team 2, clutched a second
and third place win in the competition, just shy of first place by two points. The second-place
team, Penn State Main Team 1, was awarded $1,000 for their success in the competition.

The overall objective of the CAWP competition is to highlight the pros of working in the
construction industry and the opportunities that come along with working in this field. It strives
to provide hands-on learning opportunities to students, along with applying the skills of working
in a team, being able to think critically and obtaining proficient presentation and communication
skills.

Thomas Skibinski, assistant teaching professor in civil engineering and adviser for the team,
explained the details of the competition.

“The students receive the project bid documents (drawings and specifications) for review the
night before the competition,” Skibinski said. “First thing Friday morning, the students attend a
pre-bid meeting.”

They are then given the rest of the day to complete the missing parts of the bid proposal,
Skibinski explained. The completed bid is to be handed in by 5 p.m. that day. Following this,
teams prepare their project presentations for the next day in front of a panel of construction
executives. The competition concluded late Saturday afternoon with a presentation from the
contractor who constructed the project, followed by the awards ceremony.

Casey Mrazik, a senior in civil engineering and a member of Penn State Main Team 1, shared
her biggest takeaways and learning opportunities from the competition.

“The competition setup was very real world,” Mrazik said. “Contracting companies are often
given project drawings a few weeks prior to the bid date. To fully understand a project and the
special provisions associated with the job enough to determine the cost, schedule, equipment and
materials necessary for construction requires significant time and effort.”

Through this competition experience, Mrazik said, she learned the importance of asking for
clarifications and questions from the design professional, time management and teamwork.

The competition doesn’t make tasks simple and purposely selects projects that will challenge the
students.

The time constraint was the most difficult challenge, according to Mrazik. The team only had
eight hours to complete tasks such as pricing a box culvert, choosing the right crane for the job,
developing a stream diversion and developing a schedule. She noted that the stream diversion
design was the task the team struggled with the most because no members had prior experience
in water resources.

“To overcome the adversity, our team worked together and assigned specific tasks based on
team-member strengths and backgrounds. We also helped each other out during the day to ensure
that we would be able to submit a competitive bid on time,” Mrazik said.
Penn State paired up with Brayman Construction again this year for the competition, specifically
their chief estimator, Evan Ring who contributed a lot in the terms of teaching the students the
details of construction cost estimating. Brayman Construction has been Penn State’s industry
partner since the beginning, and the teams are beyond thankful for their assistance.

“Their expertise is invaluable,” Skibinski said.

Media Contact:
Megan Lantz
mel5512@psu.edu
Jennifer Matthews
jmatthews@psu.edu