ASCE 2024 Call for Presentations has closed
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE’s) mission is to lead the civil engineering profession to sustainably advance and protect the health, safety, and welfare of all. The American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the nation's oldest engineering society.
Key Dates for 2024 Submissions
- Call for submissions opens | November 2023
- All submissions due | March 1, 2024
- Author notification | April 2024
Convention Purpose
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Convention is the Society’s premier membership event. It is the single annual opportunity where the entire Society joins together reflecting the diversity that ASCE encompasses. The convention program is designed to have integrated, multi-disciplinary, technical, and educational components to meet the needs of the profession.
The program will provide benefits to attendees on an educational and professional level and value to their employers by enhancing staff's technical, managerial, and leadership skills.
Target Audience
The convention target audience is leaders in the civil engineering profession across all disciplines and levels of experience. Targeted attendees include all ASCE members, institute members, students, younger professionals, and seasoned experts.
Convention Topics
The ASCE Convention core message is to encourage civil engineering leaders to Engineer, Innovate and Lead. The 2024 Convention will prepare attendees to focus on how we can best position ourselves for a prosperous building and protecting infrastructure in the United States and across the globe. Sessions being considered will highlight innovative and new solutions/systems for the current and future workforce, equitable infrastructure planning, cyber security, sustainability, and climate-resilient practices, emerging technologies, and more.
State of the Industry/Profession
Presentations are intended to introduce industry- and profession-level topics from a leadership outlook; explore systems integrations; examine the civil engineering professions, how it functions and issues that impact it; and show how civil engineering affects industry and the public.
Integrated Systems
The sessions should have a multi-discipline perspective on topics important to the civil engineering profession and provide interactive information exchange.
System Failures and Recovery
The topic is intended to explore disasters from a multi-disciplinary point of view. It will look at the natural and/or man-made causes; prediction; present codes and standards and suggested revisions; and/or examine impacts, mitigation, and recovery from effects by component or macro approaches. The session may contain reports from the ASCE/Institute Disaster Response teams and investigate case studies, lessons learned, or discuss sustainability, and/or resilience design concepts.
Strategic Issues/Public Policy
This topic is intended to present a forum to discuss the progress and direction of public policies and their effect on the profession. Sessions are intended to present current status, to drill down on practicable application of policies, how to utilize ASCE policies to affect political and legislative changes, to present case studies, and investigate future directions. Presenters should be both ASCE members and outside thought leaders from academia, private practice, and public practice who are actively pursuing solutions and employing tools related to ASCE’s strategic issues and policies. Presenters could also be political or legislative leaders who understand the issues and the environment surrounding them.
Significant Projects
This topic is intended to cover mega projects and multidisciplinary systems viewpoints on the feasibility, planning, design, construction, costs, public process, value, innovation, environmental, sustainability, and resiliency of the project discussed.
History & Heritage
The topic will cover significant civil achievements within the region of the host city or of national importance appeal for all attendees.
Conference Program and Sessions
To appeal to the broad and diverse groups within the engineering profession, the convention program will be comprised of a well-rounded mix of sessions from the six main topic areas. Authors may submit a full or partial session idea and the Technical Program Subcommittee will work with selected submitting authors to merge similar ideas within a category to create a session.
Submitting a proposal to the convention constitutes an agreement that, if your proposal is accepted, the author(s) will register for the convention by September 24, 2024 (either at full or daily rate), attend the convention, and present their work in person.
Many technical sessions will include various presentation styles. The Technical Program Sub-committee will work with session leaders to ensure the presentation components for a particular session involve a suitable mix of topics, and the proposed presentation style is the most appropriate format for the subject matter.
Types of Sessions
Sessions are scheduled concurrently throughout the convention and are based on the convention’s established topic categories. Please note that submissions may be combined with similarly identified topics at the Technical Program Subcommittee’s discretion. Authors will be notified in advance and have an opportunity to discuss the combined session format before it is finalized.
Roundtable Discussion (60, 75, or 90 minutes)
In these sessions, a group of experts on the given topic review and discuss specialized, professional matters before the audience on an equal basis. This type of session does not include a moderator or facilitator and is more of a conversation format with no formal question or answer period but instead allows the audience to participate and ask questions during the entire session. Rooms for roundtable discussions are set theater-style with a riser and chairs for speakers at the front of the room.
Concurrent Program Sessions (60, 75, or 90 minutes)
These lecture style and interactive sessions are scheduled concurrently throughout the convention and build on the convention's established topic categories. The session may include one or three speakers presenting different aspects of the same topic. It is not a panel discussion with a moderator (see below). Authors may propose partial sessions of 15-30 minutes or a full session at 60-90 minutes. The proposals of 15 to 30 minutes will be combined with similarly identified topics at the Technical Program Sub-committee's discretion. The session must include a question and answer period from the audience. The Q&A portion is typically between 10 to 20 minutes in duration, positioned after each speaker or at the end of the session, as is best applicable to the overall session. Authors will be notified in advance and have an opportunity to discuss the combined session format before it is finalized. Rooms for concurrent program sessions are typically set theater style with a lectern at the front of the room.
Panel Discussions (60, 75, or 90 minutes)
A panel discussion is an instructional technique using a group of people chosen to discuss a topic in the presence of an audience. The panel should not exceed 4 individuals with a moderator/facilitator to facilitate the discussion and the question and answer period from the audience. The Q&A session is typically between 10 to 20 minutes in duration. This room is typically set theater-style with a head table for a maximum of four speakers.
Point/Counterpoint with Questions & Answers (60 minutes)
This panel discussion is a technique using a group of individuals chosen to debate a topic in the presence of an audience. The panel should not exceed a total of 6 individuals (up to 3 per side) with a facilitator to facilitate the discussion and the question and answer session. This room is typically set theater-style with two head tables.
Submission Requirements
- All proposals must be submitted via ASCE’s online paper management system.
- Proposal must be free of materials and/or language that discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, physical ability, or sexual orientation.
- All submissions must include the submitting author’s full name, telephone number and email address.
- Proposal must be free of personal/corporation-specific marketing.
- Both the main topic and a sub-topic must be selected to be considered.
Submission due date | March 1, 2024
Selection Criteria
Proposals will be selected by the convention’s Technical Program Subcommittee based on the following criteria:
- Relevance to the defined convention topics and sub-topics.
- Interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary applications.
- Potential to attract and stimulate cross-cutting and collaborative discussions.
- Timeliness of the topic.
- Practical application of information to be presented.
- Practical and clearly defined learning objectives.
Scheduling of Program Sessions
Program sessions are scheduled throughout the convention from Monday, October 7, through Tuesday, October 8, between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.; and Wednesday, October 9, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Program sessions will only be held during the official dates and times of the ASCE Convention. Submission indicates the availability to present a session on any of the dates and times listed. All sessions may be asked to drop down to 60 minutes to accommodate a revised session.
Proposal/Abstract Submission Process
Session proposals allow the Technical Program Subcommittee to develop a comprehensive convention program that will be both valuable and interesting for all attendees. Your proposal must contain all three components described below including your email address and telephone number. Submissions without the completed information in full and containing a comprehensive session topic description will not be considered.
The Technical Program Subcommittee reserves the right to combine abstracts/topics to create a session.
Program Abstract (200-250 words)
The Convention Technical Program Subcommittee is seeking abstracts that align with the convention topic areas. Describe the session topic and its relevance to the convention and participants, what the attendees will take away from the session, and how the presentation will be made within the 200 to 250-word abstract. Submitting authors must provide enough detail to convey all of the aspects of the topic the speakers intend to discuss in a session. The proposal must be a minimum of 200 words.
Session Format
Please describe the proposed format for how the session will be conducted—including the number of speakers, length of presentations, anticipated manner of audience participation, and other similarly related information. If possible, please identify all speakers, panel members, moderators or facilitators by name, affiliation, and include their phone numbers and email addresses.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives are needed to identify and award PDHs during the Convention. Submitting authors must include 3 learning objectives (maximum of 5) for each session. The learning objectives must be clear, specific, and measurable and reflect what the attendees will achieve/learn by participating in the session. Submissions without learning objectives will not be considered for inclusion in the Convention program.
Follow these guidelines when writing the objectives:
- A statement that clearly communicates what the participant will be able to demonstrate at the conclusion of the session, including conditions and criteria of performance
- Measurable
- Feedback from participants demonstrating skills or knowledge obtained
The following is an example of a learning objective that complies with the ANSI/IACET Standard:
- "Identify four principal structural properties of aluminum according to the 2015 Aluminum Design Manual" (instead of the vague “Know the principal structural properties of aluminum.”)
Learning objectives that comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard must use one condition, one action verb, and one standard or criterion.
Revisions and Combinations
ASCE staff and the Technical Program Subcommittee members may propose changes to session proposals in an effort to manage content and fit the available programming times. Sessions may be accepted conditionally based on such changes.
Notification
Notification of session status will be sent to the submitting author(s) in April 2024.
Key Dates for 2024 Submissions
- Call for submissions opens | November 2023
- All submissions due | March 1, 2024
- Author notification | April 2024