From May 22 to 25, during the Fifth National Workshop on Geo-Synthetic Materials: Reinforced Earth, the final of Second National Collegiate Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall Design Contest (Xu Yu Cup) was held at Southwest Jiaotong University. The contest was organized by the Chinese Geo-Synthetic Materials Engineering Association and co-organized by Tongji University, Southwest Jiaotong University, and Qingdao Xuyu Materials Co. Ltd. The contest is the only collegiate competition in the geotechnical engineering field in China, aiming at fostering the college students’ practical, innovative, collaborative and integrated capacity.

The contest gathered 83 teams of 51 universities, including Tongji University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Southwest Jiaotong University, and Chongqing University etc. Through selective referee screening for submitted proposals, 27 teams of 23 universities were identified. And 2 XJTU teams made it to the final.

The contest took over 9 months from proposal design to on-site competition. With meticulous supervision by supervisors, the participants engaged themselves in modifying proposals, carefully designing devices, repeatedly studying the building techniques and experimenting thoroughly. On the final, XJTU teams presented well designed devices and demonstrated partnership, sophistication in techniques, as well as flexibility and outstanding communication and hands-on skills. The innovative design work earned wide acclaims from referees and eventually a great honor for XJTU.

The contest produced 2 First Awards, 4 Second Awards, 8 Third Awards and 13 Awards for Exceptional Performances. Through fierce competition, two teams of Professor Liao Hongjian from School of Human Settlement and Architectural Engineering, comprising 6 graduate students, i.e., Yang Bo, Hao Dongrui, Zhu Qingnv, Yang Kai, Gao Shuxia, and Zhang Chenhe, plucked the Second Award as well as the Award for Exceptional Performances.