Event Recap: 12th Annual UTSA Engineering BBQ Cook-Off

On Oct. 23 and 24, WGI's San Antonio office fired up the pits at the 12th Annual UTSA Engineering BBQ Cook-Off, hosted by engineering students from The University of Texas at San Antonio. In our fourth year at the event, we took home first place in the Chicken category out of a field of 34 teams!

Cooking for a Cause

UTSA's ASCE and ITE student chapters started the cook-off in 2014, and ASME, EWB, AIChE, and AIAA have since joined them. What began as a joint project between two chapters now brings together engineering students from across the university.

Local engineering firms compete in chicken, pork ribs, and brisket, with a People's Choice contest running alongside the judged categories. The proceeds make the cook-off a major fundraiser for all six student organizations, and the money helps pay for the conferences, competitions, and outreach programs the chapters run throughout the school year.

Bringing Home the Hardware

Competition barbecue runs on the smoker's schedule, so our team settled in for the long haul. WGI associates kept the pits going all weekend, and everyone on the team pitched in, from tending the smoker to running the booth once the crowds arrived.

All that work paid off in the Chicken category. Our entry finished ninth last year, and this year it climbed all the way to first! Our team competed for three years without placing in the top three, so the trophy that came home to the San Antonio office this year was long overdue.

Back for Seconds at the People's Choice Booth

Our People's Choice entry had a high bar to clear after last year's Horchata-Cold Brew fusion kept a line at our booth all afternoon. This year the team mixed two new drinks, a Brazilian lemonade and a Jamaican-inspired drink, and visitors kept coming back to the WGI booth for refills.

Why We Keep Coming Back

WGI made its cook-off debut in 2023 as Title Sponsor of the 9th annual event, and the weekend has been on the San Antonio office's calendar ever since. This year we returned as the Silver Event Sponsor. Our sponsorship goes to the student organizations that run the cook-off, and a weekend at the pits gives students the chance to talk with working engineers away from a classroom or a career fair.

Those connections go both ways. When WGI first competed in 2023, one of our own interns led the event for the UTSA student organizations, and plenty of the students who stop by our booth are the same ones we hope to see in our San Antonio office someday.

Defending the Title

The team is already looking ahead to the 13th Annual UTSA Engineering BBQ Cook-Off, where WGI will defend its first-place chicken title. Come find WGI's booth next year to see what our team comes up with next!

Start Your Career With WGI

UTSA students, the cook-off is a great place to meet our team, and we'd love to keep the conversation going after the smoke clears. Our internship programs put students to work on real projects alongside our engineers, and our current openings include entry-level roles in San Antonio and across our 25 offices in 11 states. Apply today, and you might find yourself on next year's pit crew!

Work With WGI in San Antonio

Away from the pits, WGI's San Antonio team designs parks, mixed-use sites, and other infrastructure across the region, including the recently completed Pickwell Park improvements in District 3. If you have a project coming up in the San Antonio area, contact our team to start the conversation with the people who will design it.