UTEP Hosts National Finals for 2026 AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition
Forty-four university teams competed, showcasing top engineering talent from across the nation
EL PASO, Texas (June 1, 2026) – The University of Texas at El Paso made history as host of the 2026 American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Student Steel Bridge Competition National Finals, welcoming 44 university teams from across the country to the El Paso Convention Center May 22–23. For the first time ever, the UTEP Miguel A. Loya College of Engineering served as the host of the prestigious competition, which challenges undergraduate engineering students to design, fabricate and rapidly assemble a full-scale steel bridge under strict rules and time constraints.
“Hosting the National Finals is an enormous undertaking, and our team put in tremendous effort to pull it off,” said Jeffrey Weidner, Ph.D., UTEP faculty advisor for the Steel Bridge team and associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. “Having so many of the top engineering programs in the country come to El Paso is a real statement about what UTEP can do. We wanted to showcase our city, our University and the depth of talent that exists right here on the border.”
This year’s design challenge was themed around a pedestrian bridge over the Rio Grande, with a unique constraint requiring teams to build entirely from the center span of the bridge — simulating real-world conditions where construction access is limited. Each team’s roughly 20-foot steel structure was judged on build speed, total weight, structural stiffness under a 2,500-pound vertical load, lateral stability and aesthetic presentation.
Opening day on Friday, May 22, featured the aesthetics judging round, during which all 44 bridges were assembled simultaneously on the convention center floor for evaluation by a panel of industry judges. Saturday featured the main competitive rounds, with five teams building simultaneously throughout the day, followed by a recognition banquet that evening.
UTEP’s own team also competed in the finals, having qualified fourth in the highly competitive Texas-Mexico regional — which sent four schools to nationals, including Texas A&M and two institutions from Mexico. The 16-member UTEP squad, led by co-captains Ethan Ortega and Emilio Torres, distinguished itself by fabricating its own bridge entirely in-house at the team’s workshop in the Carl Hertzog Building — a practice that many competing programs outsource to professional fabricators.
“There’s something really special about building every piece of this bridge ourselves, from the design drawings all the way to welding the steel in our own shop,” said Ethan Ortega, UTEP Steel Bridge team co-captain and senior civil engineering major. “Competing on our home turf in front of the whole country gave us a lot of pride. We wanted to show that UTEP engineers can go toe-to-toe with anyone.”
The competition drew teams from some of the nation’s most prominent engineering programs, including the University of Florida, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, and University at Buffalo, among others. Competing schools come from 19 regional qualifying events held in conjunction with American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student symposiums across the country.
The AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition has been a flagship collegiate engineering event for decades, giving students hands-on experience in structural design, fabrication, project management and teamwork. UTEP’s participation in this year’s national finals marks its third appearance at the national level in recent years, continuing a streak of regional success for the program.
Last Updated on June 01, 2026 at 12:00 AM | Originally published June 01, 2026
By MC Staff UTEP Marketing and Communications
