National Student Steel Bridge Competition
Last weekend, I joined the UD student steel bridge team at the University of Florida for the National Student Steel Bridge Competition (NSSBC). The event in Gainesville, Florida, featured bridges from the top 42 teams in the country. These teams qualified for the national contest by placing either 1st or 2nd place in their respective regional competitions. UD placed 2nd at the Ohio Valley student competition and advanced to nationals for the first time in several years (the first time since any current students have been at UD). Needless to say, this was a very exciting event.
Our faculty advisor, Professor Alakkad, along with the 6 steel bridge team members from UD traveled by plane to Florida, shipping the 250-pound bridge from Dayton to Gainesville. Several UD ASCE officers including myself attended the competition to cheer on the steel bridge Flyers. Although there were extremely well-trained and well-prepared teams, UD was looking to peform as well as possible and have fun along the way. That's the great thing about UD students - everyone makes sure that they have fun no matter what their doing and no matter what struggles they must endure.
The first day of the competition involved the display, or aesthetic judging, followed by the main competition the next day. 5 lanes were set up in the O-Connell Center at UF for teams to build their bridges in a timed construction competition. Once each team built their bridge, it was loaded with a total of 100 steel angles, each weighing 25 pounds, producing a total vertical loading of 2500 pounds. Additionally, a lateral load test was performed, and the deflection (how much the bridge moves) was monitored throughout the loading. All a 42 teams constructed and loaded their bridges in about 8 hours in an efficient and well-run competition. In the end, the schools were ranked based on aesthetics, construction time, construction cost, loading, and deflection.
Although UD did not take home any prizes from the national competition, the team did walk away with a lot of pride. The months of hard work and time spent on the bridge paid off when they were able to compete among the best schools in the country. Many team members will be returning next year, bringing ideas from the competition to improve on our performance and advance to the nationals in Las Vegas in 2009!
May 29, 2008 9:22 PM
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