04/23/2026
In addition to balancing their rigorous coursework and campus involvement, a group of South Dakota Mines students are taking on another monumental challenge: organizing and hosting a major regional competition that will bring more than 250 students and faculty from 11 universities to the area April 23 – 25.
South Dakota Mines will host the 2026 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Rocky Mountain Student Symposium, a three-day event that rotates annually among universities across the five-state region. The symposium is one of 21 held nationwide each year and was last hosted by Mines in 2018.
Planning and coordination of the event has been led almost entirely by students in the university’s ASCE student chapter, with senior civil engineering student Lucas Ransen serving as symposium chair.
“I have really enjoyed the planning, and it has been a really cool learning experience, but there have also been some stressful parts to it as well,” Ransen said, adding that the skills he developed through the planning process will help long after he graduates this May.
The symposium will feature a range of hands-on and technical competitions designed to test students' engineering knowledge, creativity and teamwork. The event begins Thursday, April 23, on the Mines campus with the Mystery Design competition and a welcome social.
On Friday, April 24, all competitions, including concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions, two of the symposium's marquee events, will take place at The Monument. Additional competitions include surveying, sustainable solutions and timber-strong design build.
The competition culminates on Saturday, April 25, with concrete canoe races at Angostura Lake, followed by an awards ceremony back on campus that evening.
All aspects of the competition are open to the public. A full schedule of events can be found here: https://studentsymposium.asce.org/rocky-mountain/schedule/