Imagine having only 16 hours to develop a complete project plan for building a helicopter landing facility at an airfield — that was the challenge for a team of UAA construction management students at the 2025 Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Regions 6 & 7 Student Competition, where they finished third in the Heavy Civil category for the second consecutive year.

On the podium for UAA in Sparks, Nevada, last month were students Eli Mortensen (team captain), William Marstall, Tess Porter, Jeremy Horacek, Kansas Bertollini and Mike Stees, along with Michael Swalling, assistant professor and faculty advisor, and Kris Jensen, volunteer coach and project superintendent with Quality Asphalt Paving. Rayn Ross and Jeff Cumbie also represented UAA as alternates, competing on mixed teams comprised of other alternates from participating schools.

The three-day event kicked off at 6 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, when teams received thumb drives with all project plans, specifications, requirements and deliverables. From there, it was a race against the clock as students worked to complete proposals before the 10 p.m. deadline without any input from faculty or industry attendees. (ASC's 2023 video recap captures the day's intensity perfectly.)

Each year, the competition's problems are drawn from real-life projects previously completed by industry partners. Kiewit, the sponsor for UAA's division, tasked student teams with submitting a bid proposal for the construction of a helicopter landing facility at Wheeler Army Airfield in Hawaii. The tense environment and tight deadlines of the competition mirror the demands of working in the construction industry. Sponsors will also issue addendums to the project throughout the day without changing the timeline. Swalling recalls one particularly daunting year when the addendum required students to bid on another job in addition to the original project.

After teams turn in their proposals, they're assigned a presentation time for Friday, which could be anywhere from early morning to late afternoon. Hopefully, students are still well-stocked with energy drinks and doughnuts at this point because it's time to practice their delivery. Each team member is responsible for presenting in their area, just as each assumed a designated function on the project team (scheduler, risk analysis, etc.).

For the airfield project that UAA worked on this year, the key was finding an adequate source of aggregate for the concrete since the local quarries could not guarantee that their rock would meet specifications. The team chose to import the 50,000 tons of material from Canada in order to comply with the specs. "It was the right choice. Kiewit chose to do the same thing," said Swalling. The UAA crew accepted their third-place award during the Saturday morning awards ceremony, which preceded the ASC job fair.

More than 100 companies attended the fair to recruit promising talent. "These are the top students, and the companies know that these are the ones that are really good at what they do," said Swalling. "If you're a company looking for help, why not just pick the cream of the crop?" For UAA students, the job fair is one of many opportunities to connect with employers. Thanks to the program's industry-experienced faculty and strong community connections, many students secure job offers before graduation.

This year's competition brought together 241 teams from 57 universities across 22 states, with 1,798 students participating. As a relatively small program (80 enrolled students versus 500+) that relies on volunteers and donations to attend the competition, UAA is something of an underdog, punching well above its weight. It's a position not too different from Alaska's construction industry compared to other sectors. Nearly 10% of all Alaska jobs are related to construction activity, and wages for construction workers are 37% more than the average wage for all Alaska workers.

As the only American Council for Construction Education-accredited program in Alaska, UAA's associate and bachelor's degree options in construction management offer the perfect gateway to an industry whose economic reach spans the entire state, from the smallest village to the largest city.

Explore UAA's construction management programs.