The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Construction Management and Civil and Construction Engineering recently received a prestigious national award.

Heather N. Richardson, executive director of the Arkansas State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors, and H. James Engstrom, its longest serving board member, presented the department with an engineering award for connecting professional practice and education during a ceremony on Nov. 5 at UALR.

Richardson and Engstrom appeared at the ceremony on behalf of the Clemson, S.C.-based National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). The organization gave its top award to Marquette University in Milwaukee and honored five other schools throughout the country — including UALR —  with the next level of award.

Each of the 2,400 accredited engineering programs in the United States was eligible to submit projects to the NCEES for consideration.

An NCEES booklet that will be distributed to every engineering college in the country features the six winning projects. UALR’s award-winning work, ““American Red Cross of Greater Arkansas seismic retrofit feasibility study,”  is featured on pages 28-33.

Six senior students in UALR’s civil and construction engineering program completed the project during the 2014-15 school year. Industry sponsors were licensed professional engineers from Cromwell Architects Engineers and CDI Contractors. Licensed professional engineers from Prospect Steel also assisted. Faculty advisors were licensed professional engineers from UALR.

The award originally was announced in June 2015.