A group of civil engineering students won a steel bridge construction competition earlier this month and are hoping to continue their success when they head to nationals in May.
The team, composed of five seniors, made its way to Tennessee for the regional ASCE-AISC National Student Steel Bridge Competition on April 5 and 6. They competed against civil engineering undergraduates from nine different universities in the South, including the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Louisiana Tech University.
The competition involved designing and constructing a model of a steel bridge one-tenth the normal size, said David Ziegler, team captain.
Ziegler said each team member put in more than 100 hours of work preparing. The competition required that the bridge be built under a time constraint, which made practicing important, he said.
Participating in the competition cost about $3,000 total, and equipment cost more than $15,000, said Mark Genre, a team member.
Genre said the University’s civil engineering department gave the team $1,500 for each competition, but the rest of the money was left up to team fundraising.
Ziegler said travel expenses alone cost around $8,000 for the national competition at Clemson University.
“If anybody wants to give us money, we’ll take it,” Genre said.
The team agreed the competition provided a glimpse into the career of a civil engineer. The competition and preparation involved troubleshooting and trial and error, and tweaks to the bridge were made up until the last minute.
Ziegler said the team has also become a close-knit group because of the many hours they spent working on the bridge together. Other members include civil engineering seniors Kenneth Lirette, Adam Milling, Chris Sciortino and Jacob Trowbridge.
The team will look at feedback from the regional competition in preparation for nationals, he said.
One of the biggest challenges the team has faced is balancing school and the competition. Ziegler said professors have been understanding about how much time the project requires.
Despite the challenges of participating in the project, the team agreed it was worth the effort.
“It helps you learn how to work with others and understand design and finding weaknesses in what you build,” Genre said.
The team will test their skills at the national competition on May 25 and 26.
 
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Contact Brian Sibille at [email protected]