ABC-SEMI Issue, 3 2020

Southeast Michigan Contractors  Issue 3 2020 5 ECONOMY continues on page 6 >> It’s the start of the 2020 winter semester at Lawrence Technological University (LTU); six students in an array of construction related majors, volunteer to partake in a national competition: The Construction Management Competition (CMC). We are proud to announce the team made the finals and will go to nationals. “The CMC turned out to be so much more than we anticipated as a team. Nonetheless, it was a real eye-opening experience as we had to research different topics ranging from safety, estimating, scheduling, quality control, and project management as a whole. Nothing can prepare college students for working in the real world than actually doing the pre-construction work on a real project,” Kyle Finnerty, CMC team member. This was a new experience for everyone involved. Our chapter has never competed in the CMC before. On January 31 ABC National released the project scope, a 14-page single-spaced document describing the new 6-story courthouse that was to be built in downtown Nashville, TN. The students were immediately blown away by the breadth of this project and devised a plan to play off each other’s strengths. For when you are building a structure or a team you must have a strong foundation. “Participating in the Construction Management Competition for the first time was an excellent opportunity for my students. The competition allows our students to work on a real construction project, representing a unique learning opportunity. They will be able to utilize the knowledge they acquired during the competition for years to come. The partnership with the ABC Southeastern Michigan is the core of all of that,” said Ahmed Al-Bayati, LTU Professor. For this group of students, stress levels were rising weekly; course loads, capstone projects, securing summer internships, applying to graduate school, and even senioritis all played their part as the semester drew on. Little did this group of students know, that an unforeseen pandemic was about to change everything entirely. For the following three months the team adapted as in-person meetings transformed into Google Hangout meetings. Despite any drastic social changes, the team members were able to generate professional relationships with industry experts as ABC NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT COMPETITION PROJECT COMPLETION “ You can only learn so much in a classroom following a syllabus. Much about construction is learned through experience in the field, and being able to ask questions and listen to stories from these guys is invaluable. “