Each year university students nationwide compete in DBIA’s Design-Build Student Competition. to be named the best design-build student team in America. DBIA is proud to offer these future leaders of our industry this incredible opportunity to show off their design-build skills to design-build professionals across all disciplines.

2023 Design-Build Student Competition

This year’s competition tasks teams to deliver an activity and recreation center on a liberal arts university campus in the United States. Teams will compete in two phases to earn their place in the finals, starting with their response to a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). Those team RFQs are judged in the competitor’s regions and the winners will move on to phase two. That’s where they will then submit a Request for Proposals (RFP). The top three teams from the RFP phase will present their proposals to an impressive panel of industry leaders at the 2023 Design-Build Conference & Expo in National Harbor, MD this November.

For student teams, this competition offers real-world experience and unequaled access to design-build leaders looking for new young talent. Here’s how some past competitors describe their experience:

“This is a national professional organization that supports students in the competition; it’s as real-life as they can get and we can’t wait to enter next year!” – Sacramento State

“As a student, you don’t get a lot of chances to talk to the higher-ups within an organization. If you do well, they seek you out and want to get to know you. I think being in the top three allows you the reverse of normal students. Rather than you trying to seek out a job, people seek you out to offer you a job. We had at least one person say, ‘If you want a job, you have one with Company X.’” – University of Colorado Boulder

 “DBIA’s Student Competition was a learning experience of a lifetime – it provided ‘real world’ challenges that made us stronger and prepared for future success.” – Washington State University

We hope the DBIA community will spread the word to your alma mater, university faculty connections, university students in your area or even your own company interns that the 2023 National Design-Build Student Competition is open. They can get started by registering their team online.