On Saturday, April 13, the eyes of the Civil Engineering world in the midwest were trained on Ann Arbor, Michigan for the regional finals of the Steel Bridge competition! Joseph was competing for the University of Michigan. This was the culmination of months of work that he and about a dozen other students put in to design and fabricate a 22' long bridge. Five schools were competing, with the top two advancing to the national competition.
The start of the process is in the Fall, when the students design a bridge according to the specifications of the contest. They then fabricate the pieces of steel to be used in their design, as well as bolts to secure it in place. Once the parts are made, they practice putting it together. On competition day, they are judged on three main criteria: how fast they put it together, how well it is able to withstand lateral force, and whether it can support several-thousand pounds of weight. There also are several other criteria that must be met.
The Michigan team had an outstanding design, and were well positioned to advance to the nationals, but in the process of constructing their bridge, the head of one of the bolts snapped off. They were unable to remove and replace the bolt, which was stuck in the joint without a head. As a result, they had a joint that wasn't secured by a bolt, which disqualified them! Very disappointing, but they were nonetheless deservedly very proud of their accomplishment.
Before the competition begins - these are the individual steel pieces of the bridge which have been designed by the team and will be used to construct the bridge
The competition takes place in the atrium of the main Civil Engineering classroom
The Michigan team begins laying out their pieces in preparation to construct the bridge
Joseph is on the left in the blue shorts
The judges explain the rules to the team before the construction starts
The team hard at work constructing the bridge!
Judges checking the construction once the building has completed
Looking at the damaged bolt
The infamous corner with the busted bolt
2019 University of Michigan Steel Bridge Team
Here's a video of the seven minutes it took the team to construct the bridge:
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