Ben Walpole

It’s a good week to make some history. Just seven days before the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Western Kentucky University concrete canoe wrote a new chapter in its own history book, winning the school’s first Society-wide concrete canoe championship this weekend at the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. Their winning canoe?

ASCE STUDENT CHAMPIONSHIPS 6/11/2026 3 MIN READ Take me home, country roads. West Virginia is calling. The 2026 ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships are coming to Fairmont State University, June 25-27, in the lovely mountainous West Virginia countryside made famous by the John Denver song. The annual event brings together hundreds of engineering students from ASCE student chapters around the world for a weekend of fun and competition.

There is a U.S. city whose reputation has been steadily growing in civil engineering circles this decade. Infrastructure growth left and right. Strong talent base. Appealing climate. “My whole family's here. To me, it's the best city there is,” said Joseph Guagliardo, P.E., CGC, M.ASCE, of his hometown. “And growing up, it felt like it was the best city that nobody had discovered.” Well, if this particular city’s charms went largely unnoticed for a long time, consider the secret to be officially out.