Saturday, February 16, 2008
Teams of students will be building bridges out of balsa wood and glue.
YOUNGSTOWN — The First Mahoning Valley Miniature Bridge Building Competition for high school students will be held from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.
The event involves design and construction of a balsa wood bridge, followed by load testing until the bridge fails. The goal of the competition is to promote an awareness of civil engineering as a career field choice to students and to provide students with an educational opportunity to apply their knowledge to a real-world application.
The competition coincides with National Engineer’s Week.
All Mahoning County high schools have been invited to participate. Competing this year are teams representing Canfield, Chaney, Lowellville, Springfield and Western-Reserve high schools, and Choffin and Mahoning County career and technical centers.
The competition has been organized and supported by Mahoning County Engineer Richard Marsico; YSU’s Department of Civil Engineering; City of Niles Engineer David DeChristofaro; MS Consultants Inc. engineers, architects and planners; and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Boardman Hobby Shop is a prime sponsor of this event, donating pre-competition bridge-building kits and will supply the materials needed for the bridges being built on the day of the competition.
Teams will arrive for registration at 8 a.m. and the bridge building will run from 8:30 to 11:45 a.m. After allowing for lunch and glue-drying time, bridges will be inspected for adherence to design specifications at 12:45 p.m. and then load-tested until the structure fails.
The winning bridge will be chosen based on meeting the design criteria and the most efficient load-carrying capacity to structure-weight ratio. Prizes will be awarded to the winning teams at approximately 2:15 p.m.