The Pacific South West Conference (PSWC) is ASCE’s annual student chapter competition that puts civil engineering skills to the test. The competition involves a wide range of events including, but not limited to, concrete canoe, steel bridge, environmental design, geotechnical design, surveying, quiz bowl, technical paper, concrete bowling, and several sports tournaments. The competition features three full days of events with an awards banquet on the last day. Over 1200 Civil & Environmental Engineering students compete each year, representing 18 universities in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii.
Our design teams spend most of the year preparing for their competitions at PSWC. The 18 competing universities pose a high level of competition, but our teams have improved steadily in recent years. After placing 3rd overall at PSWC 2014, our highest rank since 1994, the 2015 USC team repeated with another 3rd place overall for the first time in our recorded history, led by first-place finishes in Technical Paper, Scavenger Hunt, Ultimate Frisbee, and Mystery Event. At PSWC 2016, we repeated 1st in Technical Paper and placed 2nd in Environmental, leading to our third-straight 3rd place overall finish at PSWC. We’re looking forward to continuing to build on our recent successes at PSWC 2017!
Check out our results for the past few years and future host schools below. For more information about PSWC, check out our PSWC blog, which includes photos from every event at PSWC 2014.
| YEAR | HOST | OVERALL RANK | CONCRETE CANOE RANK | STEEL BRIDGE RANK | 1ST PLACE | 2ND PLACE | 3RD PLACE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | CSULB | 3rd | 8th | DQ | Technical Paper, Quiz/Jeopardy, Mystery Event | Environmental | |
| 2015 | U of A | 3rd | 5th | DQ | Technical Paper, Scavenger Hunt, Ultimate Frisbee, Mystery Event | Concrete Canoe Design Paper, Talent Show, Quiz/Family Feud | |
| 2014 | SDSU | 3rd | 6th | 3rd | Scavenger Hunt | Concrete Canoe Design Paper | |
| 2013 | USC | 12th | 14th | 10th | Environmental | ||
| 2012 | CPP | 13th | 12th | 11th | Mystery Event | Quiz Pong |
PSWC 2017 will be hosted by University of California, Irvine, April 4 – 6, 2016. Upcoming Conference Hosts:
- 2017: UC Irvine
- 2018: ASU/NAU Co-hosting (at ASU)
- 2019: Cal Poly SLO
PSWC is a self-organizing group of universities supported by ASCE. Our constitution is updated every year at the PSWC business meeting and explains the conference administration procedures. Each university hosts on a rotating basis; USC last hosted in 2013.