A student team from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) won first place overall at the Fall 2026 American Concrete Institute (ACI) Mortar Workability Competition in Atlanta, the university and the state news agency BSS said.

Team CUET C also finished second in the economical design category. The competition ran from 11 to 14 October alongside ACI's Fall convention, and 40 teams from around the world reached the final round after a selection process.

Judges gave the greatest weight to flowability, which accounted for 50 per cent of the total score, and to stability at 20 per cent. The remaining points were split among report quality (15 per cent), carbon emissions (10 per cent) and cost-effectiveness (5 per cent).

A second Bangladeshi team, from the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), placed fourth overall and took second place in the environmental design category as well as a judges' choice award in the Aesthetics in Concrete competition. Between them, the two teams representing the ACI Bangladesh Chapter won four awards.

The CUET team was advised by Dr GM Sadikul Islam, a professor in CUET's Department of Civil Engineering and faculty adviser to its ACI student chapter. The IUT team was advised by Prof Dr Tarek Uddin, president of the ACI Bangladesh Chapter.

Swarup Chandra Modak, a member of the winning team, said the competition had shown the students what they were capable of and that, with the right resources and facilities, they could demonstrate that competence anywhere in the world. Prof Sadikul Islam said CUET's ACI chapter had won six international awards since it was founded in 2018, all in online competitions, and that a first in-person win on American soil had long been a dream.