Two civil engineering student teams from the Albert Nerken School of Engineering earned spots in national competitions this year. Cooper's Steel Bridge Team competed at the 2026 Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC) National Finals, which was held from May 22 to 23 at the University of Texas at El Paso, while Cooper's Sustainable Solutions Team will be going to the ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition (SSC) from June 25 to 27 at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. 

Both the Sustainable Solutions Team and the Steel Bridge Team competed earlier in April at the Metropolitan Student Conference and Symposium in New Jersey. In their first-ever year competing, Cooper's Sustainable Solutions Team placed first against their peers at the regional level. The Steel Bridge Team took second place at the Metropolitan event and were ranked seventh in the efficiency category at the SSBC national competition. 

The SSC inspires students to solve realistic problems in the civil engineering realm by stimulating the development of knowledge in sustainable practices on a platform that encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration. The 2026 competition challenges student teams to propose professional civil engineering services and sustainability consulting services for the construction of a new data center with enhanced sustainability goals, using the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision as the primary sustainability framework.

For nearly 40 years, SSBC has challenged students to extend their classroom knowledge to a practical and hands-on steel-design project. Each student team develops a concept for a scale-model steel bridge to span approximately 20 feet and to carry 2,500 pounds. Teams must then determine how to fabricate their bridge and plan for an efficient assembly under timed construction conditions at the competition. Bridges are also load-tested, weighed, and judged on aesthetics. More than 200 schools competed this year at the regional level with about 40 teams advancing to the finals.