Construction management senior and competition coordinator Catie Dines lined up for a photo with the competitors of her senior project last month. They stood in front of the George Hasslein Memorial Sculpture and smiled.
As she looked around she took a moment to reflect on her childhood love for designing homes in the virtual world of “The Sims.” As a kid, she loved to create these buildings for her avatars, and this obsession evolved as she became older. Despite no familial background in construction, Dines’s passion for building and creating drove her to pursue a career in Construction Management.
Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) includes majors ranging from architectural engineering to construction management. Dines’s senior project was to lead a competition that challenged all five of these majors to work collaboratively.
The CAED Hasslein Student Competition was held for the first time in April, and featured teams of five students — one from each major — competing against each other to create a request for proposal (RFP). The students competed for cash prizes and were judged by experts in the field.
Teams in the competition would have two weeks to create their RFP for a new home development based on a selected plot of land. They had to create a plan for the site, including floor plans, a description of elevations, a layout for the neighborhood, structural details, landscaping and a build schedule.
According to the Project Management Institute, a Request for Proposal provides, “A mechanism for organizations to acquire better products and services for their project solutions than they might otherwise be able to provide from internally developed project solutions.”
The idea for the senior project, created by Cal Poly alumni Greta Stout, was passed on to Dines after Stout’s graduation in 2022. Stout realized that there had not yet been a program implemented by the CAED that allowed students to collaborate in an educational atmosphere.
When Stout was a senior, she researched this topic to find that only 8% of students in CAED felt there were enough interdisciplinary opportunities for collaboration. To her, this validated the importance of conducting the project.
“This project aims to challenge students to work in teams made up of all five disciplines in a Request for Proposal-style competition,” according to Stout’s research found on Cal Poly’s senior project digital commons.
40 students participated in this year’s competition. Most signed up solo with Dines in charge of creating fair and balanced teams. The competitors had two weeks to work on the projects, with presentations taking place on April 22.
The competition was not just a chance for students to collaborate, but also an opportunity to get feedback from industry professionals on their work. Dines partnered with a group called the Alliance Foundation as a benefactor for the event.
The Alliance’s mission statement is to “provide resources to promote student-centered interdisciplinary education” and “to continue that special spirit that made the Cal Poly education so important to the alumni of the College,” according to their website.
Cal Poly alumni and Alliance board member Mike Schussel worked with Dines to provide funding and support for the project. They provided Dines with materials, industry professionals for judging and a cash prize.
The Alliance is interested in supporting student-led projects or initiatives, giving students the support needed to carry out their ideas.
“You never stop learning, you have to rely on the industry and the network that comes with it,” Schussel said.
The first place team received $250 each, second place received $175 each, third place received $125 each and fourth place received $75 each.
Dines viewed the competition as a success, but it was not without its challenges, one of which was creating teams; “I didn’t know everyone who signed up, and I didn’t want to put together teams that could potentially clash over ideas.”
“Students in CAED don’t usually get the opportunity to work together,” Dines said. “There can sometimes be tension when trying to execute ideas.”
The Alliance is trying to bridge that gap by breaking down those communication barriers.
“We all need each other; you be the best in your lane and I’ll be the best in mine, but we all need to go down the same highway,” Schussel said.
Dines is passing the competition to her friend and construction management junior Katie Chris. Dines and Chris participated in the Associated Schools of Construction region six competition together for design and build, in which their team took home second place.
After completing the Reno competition, Chris was approached by Dines with the idea of taking the senior project over the next year. Chris was, “Super inspired by the project and sees the competition taking the same route.”
Dines and Chris hope that as more people get interested in this competition, Cal Poly will take over the project and introduce it to the curriculum of CAED in the future.
Chris plans to upscale the competition for next year and will work to continue inspiring other students to pursue collaborative projects.
“Now that one is under our belt it will be a lot easier to advertise the competition and potentially work with another person in another major to help run the competition and get more people involved,” Chris said.