By Remy McCool/south news editor

South Campus’ Association of Construction Management organization took home second place in the International Builders’ Residential Construction Management Competition Feb. 5 in Las Vegas.

This year’s team was made up of four students from the organization: Justin Steblay, Robert McGee, Nathaniel Uloth and Nicholas Rex. Construction assistant professor Orlando Bagcal served as the team coach. This was the organization’s fifth time to attend.

“Basically the students are given a problem … usually a proposal to build a house, and the students need to prepare a packet,” Bagcal said.

The packet consists of four components: a detailed drawing, an estimated budget, value engineering and a schedule. Value engineering is a creative approach to make the most of cost and performance while maintaining the quality of the project.

“We were provided with the floor plan, the first floor, second floor and front elevation, and we had to do the rest,” McGee said.

Fifty-six high schools, colleges and universities participated in the annual international competition by the National Association of Home Builders. High schools, two-year colleges and four-year universities made up the three categories. The South Campus organization competed against 13 groups from two-year colleges.

Once the groups had devised their plans, they had 10 minutes to present them to a panel of judges.

“Proposals are submitted to a group of construction company executives who act as judges,” Bagcal said.

The judges then “grill us for 10 minutes with questions about the drawing, the schedule and so forth,” McGee said. “Why we did this or why we did that or how could we have done better. So part of the judging is educational training.”

In addition to the competition, the event served as a learning experience for students. They could explore the latest materials, methods and technology used in the construction industry today.

“Aside from participating in the competitions, they also have the opportunity to do some focus group discussions, attend seminars and have a chance to walk through the trade show where there are probably 2,000 booths from different countries,” Bagcal said.

During the awards ceremony, the announcer said it was a very close competition.

“So it wasn’t like the Super Bowl,” McGee said.