ARMA Student Design Competition 2025
Winners
The winners of the competition were awarded during the 59th U.S. Rock Mechanics / Geomechanics Symposium.
Announcement of the winning teams by ARMA Student Council
The ARMA Student Council proudly announces the results of the ARMA Student Design Competition 2025. We received 19 registrations from all over the world, out of which nine teams successfully submitted their design reports. The reports were thoroughly evaluated by the judges. Based on the evaluation, the three winning teams were selected. We extend our sincere congratulations to the winning teams for standing out in this highly competitive field and demonstrating exceptional engineering talent.
Winning teams of the ARMA Student Design Competition 2025 (PDF)
Design competition
The ARMA Student Design Competition 2025 has concluded. The following is provided for information only.
The ARMA Student Design Competition offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to test their knowledge, creativity, team-work, and problem-solving skills by exposing them to a real-life rock engineering-related case-study problem. ITASCA Consulting Group was the official sponsor of ARMA-SDC 2025 and provided data for the case-study problem, software, and funding for the prizes. With questions, please email the ARMA Student Council.
Promotional flyer for the ARMA Student Design Competition 2025 (PDF)
Deadlines
10 March 2025 – Team registration
11 March 2025 – Problem statement release / Start of competition
13 March 2025 – Explanatory webinar
11 April 2025 – Report submission
23 May 2025 – Reviews by judges
30 May 2025 – Announcement of results
Problem statement
Problem statement for ARMA SDC 2025 (PDF)
Report template for ARMA SDC 2025 (Word)
Competition rules
Eligibility
1. A team of up to five (5) undergraduate and/or graduate students enrolled in programs related to rock mechanics and rock engineering, such as civil engineering, mining engineering, geological engineering, etc., can be formed.
2. A team does not need be from a registered ARMA Student Chapter.
3. Every competing team should have a faculty advisor. The role of the faculty advisor will be limited to ensuring that the competition rules are followed throughout the duration of the contest.
4. Every team should select a captain. Communications regarding the competition will be made to the captain.
5. A university may have more than one participating team.
6. After teams have been officially registered for the student design competition, they may not communicate with other teams about their solutions.
Team registration
The deadline to register a team for ARMA-SDC 2025 has passed. The following is for information only.
Teams must register by scanning the QR code in the promotional flyer and filling out the registration form.
Software
As part of the design competition, the explanatory webinar reviewed the competition design problem and provided a tutorial for working with ITASCA’s FLAC2D software, which has been made available to every student team during the competition. The webinar recording is available on ITASCA’s YouTube channel.
FLAC2D version 9 is available through ITASCA’s download page. See also FLAC2D model template files. If you have any questions using FLAC2D or the web license, please email David DeGagné, Senior Engineer (Technical Marketing) with ITASCA Minneapolis, at ddegagne@oneitasca.com.
Note that teams may use any software or analysis tool that they prefer.
Deliverables
Every team must submit a report with the team’s solution, addressing the topics outlined by the Problem Statement, before the submission deadline, 11 April 2025. The report should be concise (ideally, up to eight pages), but there is no formal limit.
The submitted report should address the following topics:
1. Problem definition.
2. Geological / geotechnical model (represented by a sketch).
3. Numerical modeling approach. Comment on the use of a 2D model versus 3D.
4. Overall approach, including assumptions.
5. Discussion of numerical modeling results:
– Plots of FOS contours and calculated FOS
– State of stress in the crown pillar over the course of mining
– Plasticity indicators (material yielding / failure)
– History displacements
6. How sensitive is the mine design to stress k-ratio?
7. Discuss the importance of tight mine backfill. What would you expect if the mining operation could not achieve tight backfill conditions?
8. What are your strategy and recommendations for the crown pillar?
9. What are the key risks to the proposed design?
10. How might these risks be mitigated?
Evaluation
The reports will be evaluated by the panel of judges that include ARMA experts from academia, industry, and government agencies.
Dr. Loren Lorig, P.Eng.
Principal Geotechnical Engineer
ITASCA Minneapolis
loren@oneitasca.com
website
Dr. Navid Bahrani, P.Eng.
Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator
Faculty of Engineering, Dalhousie University
navid.bahrani@dal.ca
website
Awards
Cash prizes (in USD) will be awarded to the top three teams, as follows:
First place: $1000
Second place: $650
Third place: $350
The winners will be acknowledged in the ARMA Monthly News and on the ARMA website.
NOTE: Participants residing in countries with financial transfer restrictions from the USA may be unable to receive the cash prize.
Contact information
With questions about ARMA-SRC 2025, please email the ARMA Student Council.
For additional information, you may also contact the event coordinators.
Omar Bakelli
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Utah
omar.bakelli@utah.edu
Loic Bethel Dje
Ph.D. Candidate
Oklahoma State University
lobethe@okstate.edu
Athar Hussain
Ph.D. Candidate
Texas Tech University
athar.hussain@ttu.edu
Vineeth Reddy Karnati
Ph.D. Candidate
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
vrkarnati@etu.uqac.ca
Organized by ARMA Student Council
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