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BRISTOL, R.I. – A group of ��ܽ����Ƶ students earned top honors as the Northeast Regional Championship winners in the . The team competed with 31 other student teams from 26 universities to create a comprehensive proposal to design and construct an $18-million, 46,000-square-foot science building on a liberal arts college campus.

The group, which includes three construction management students – Anthony Racicot ’17, Phillip Romagnoli ’16, Joshua Snarski ’16  – and two architecture students – Brianna Moretti ’16, Brittany Reed ’16 – worked side-by-side for 10 days and nearly 100 hours to create a design-build proposal that includes design renderings, pre-construction and construction plans, schedules, cost estimates and safety and quality control plans, among other components. As part of the proposal’s development, the students consulted with ��ܽ����Ƶ faculty members, local companies and industry professionals.

The National Design-Build Student Competition, organized by the , promotes the principles of team integration and familiarizes students with the rigors of a design-build selection process. The competition win marks the second consecutive year that ��ܽ����Ƶ has earned the Northeast Regional Championship title.

The group’s faculty advisor, Gokhan Celik – associate professor of construction management in the School of Engineering, Computing and Construction Management – believes the time spent managing the entire design-build proposal process and consulting with industry leaders will prove valuable for the students’ professional careers.

“The Design-Build Student Competition is a well run competition and a true simulation of what a design-build project is like in the industry,” Celik says. “In addition to applying the technical content they learn in class, the students take away valuable skills in areas such as leadership, working as a team, prioritizing, planning and meeting deadlines.”

Snarski served as team captain for the group and found the experience valuable in expanding his leadership skills.

“Working on this project for the Design-Build competition helped us expand on what we’ve learned from class and actually apply it to something in the real-world,” Snarski says. “It’s allowed me to speak with different industry professionals and really demonstrate what I know and what I’ve learned in class. It’s also been a great leadership opportunity, and I enjoyed leading both architecture and construction management students to make sure we were all communicating and working as a team.”

As regional winners, the ��ܽ����Ƶ team vied for the national title against eight other student groups; early this week, they were notified that they did not place among the top three teams, which now advance to the National Design-Build Competition to present their work to a live jury and audience on Nov. 3 at the Design-Build Conference and Expo in Denver. Student teams from the University of New Mexico, University of Washington and University of Colorado Boulder will advance to the final round of the competition.

Even so, the team's competitive spirit has hardly been dampened. The group is now concentrating on the Associated Schools of Construction Regional Student Competition, which will hold its ASC Region 1 Competition Nov. 13 and 14 in Morristown, N.J.