North Carolina State Univ. Wins 2026 PCI Big Beam

CHICAGO – North Carolina State University won the 2026 Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Big Beam competition, an annual nationwide challenge that encourages college students to demonstrate excellence in structural design, teamwork, and innovation using precast, prestressed concrete.

The winning team included Logan Bonner and Conrad Kang. Their faculty advisor was Gregory Lucier and PCI producer-member Tindall Corporation provided project support.

Teams of students and a faculty advisor design, build, and test a 20-foot, precast, prestressed concrete beam. Local PCI-certified precast concrete producers mentor and fabricate the beams for the teams. Entries are judged on a variety of criteria, including the beam’s load-resisting performance in tests that simulate real-life conditions structural building and infrastructure components must endure to ensure life safety, as well as the quality of their analysis and reports, and a video overview of their project.

“Congratulations to the outstanding students and educators whose creativity, technical skill, and dedication earned them top honors in the 2026 PCI Big Beam Competition,” said PCI President and CEO Bob Risser. “The innovative solutions showcased by this year’s winners demonstrate our industry’s bright future and highlight the value of introducing students to engineering, design, and construction through engaging, hands-on learning experiences.”

“When I arrived as a non-thesis master’s student a year ago, I never envisioned myself actually designing and testing a real beam,” said Bonner. “The competition provided an opportunity to ‘load test’ everything I had learned in the classroom about structural design and precast, prestressed concrete. Also, knowing that our beam would be compared to other teams pushed me to approach the problem from a competitive mindset and think creatively through every step of this project.” 

“The lessons I have learned from Tindall’s engineers and our faculty advisors has been a great introduction to precast concrete, especially for its application of concepts learned through coursework,” Kang added. 

ALP Supply and ASPIRE magazine sponsored the 2026 PCI Big Beam competition.

About PCI

Founded in 1954, The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) is a technical institute for the precast concrete structures and systems industry. PCI develops maintains, and disseminates the Body of Knowledge for the design, fabrication, and construction of precast concrete structures and systems. PCI develops consensus base standards, industry handbooks, quality assurance programs, certification, research and development projects, design manuals, continuing education, and periodical publications. PCI members include precast concrete producers, erectors, suppliers, professional engineers and architects, educators, students, and industry consultants who complement the wide range of knowledge of precast concrete. For more information, visit pci.org/howprecastbuilds.