DIALOG, in partnership with the University of Calgary, hosted its 38th Structural Design Scholarship Competition on Friday, November 4.
Established in 1984, the annual Bridge Design Competition is an opportunity for third or fourth year undergraduate students in the Department of Civil Engineering at UCalgary to compete in a case study based on engineering design challenges.
This year, eight teams participated to design, construct, and load-test their bridges. Using a styrene material, a set amount of supplies, and designing within strict geometric limitations, the top four teams were invited to present their model to a panel of judges, explaining their design concepts and lessons learned throughout the process. In total, $8,300 was divided among the final four teams.
We’re delighted to congratulate this year’s Bridge Design Competition first place winners, fourth-year students, Alex West and Mehar Sandhu.
“Our focus for this year’s competition was to challenge ourselves by designing something aesthetic and structurally efficient at the same time,” says Sandhu. “We put a priority on using concepts learned in the classroom and performing calculations ourselves rather than relying on computer software.”
West adds, “One important lesson we learned was the effect of inducing stress into a member when you bend it to create curvature. Ultimately, this led to a lower failure mode than predicted and provided us with a valuable lesson on material behaviour and stress distribution.”
This competition allowed both Sandhu and West to collaborate and join their skills together to create a product that resulted in a first-place win. “Overall, we had a great team dynamic and our skills complimented each other, which allowed us to create a bridge that we are really proud of.”
Congratulations to all the teams who participated in this year’s competition!