YSU engineering students build bridge of cards

By Harold Gwin

Engineering students compete to build most efficient ‘bridge’

1The stack of bricks — more than 3 feet high — didn’t topple over but just leaned to one side as a portion of the inch-and-a-half-high paper support structure collapsed.

It was enough to take first place in the index card structure building competition in Youngstown State University’s Introduction to Engineering for freshmen engineering students.

A total of 40 teams competed in the preliminary rounds, and the finals came down to just four teams Thursday, said Dr. Hazel Marie, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering.

Weber, Reginald Coach of Cincinnati and Chas Bower of Mount Sterling were Team Fluff, which handily defeated the competitors — The BAs, The Honeycomb and The Best Team — by piling 299 bricks atop their paper structure.

It wasn’t just about the most weight, Marie said, explaining that the contest involved a cost-to-strength ratio to determine the most efficient design.

Team Fluff’s structure was the most costly of the finalists, but the load it was able to bear far outweighed the cost factor.

Weber said his team took its design from basic bridge construction by focusing the structure’s support strength at its four corners, rather than in the middle.

The structure was essentially a table, Coach said.

Weber said the team altered the design it used to win the preliminary competitions when its structure could hold only 200 bricks. A modification that slightly extended the distance between the four “legs” to give it a broader base of support allowed it to hold a heavier load, he said.

The engineering class covers structural issues, balance points and other pertinent information before the competition, Marie said, adding that the students go through a lot of trial and error with their designs.

The winners get YSU T-shirts, but, more importantly, they get bragging rights, she said. Senior engineering students still talk about their own freshman competition, she said.

Each team is also required to submit a comprehensive technical report on their design and tests, Marie said.

The main purpose of the exercise is “learning teamwork,” she said.

gwin@vindy.com