High-school students vie in bridge-building competition

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

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Teams of three high-school students huddled over drawings and matchstick-sized pieces of balsa wood, carefully assembling the parts.

They were participating in the Mahoning Valley Miniature Bridge Building Competition on Friday in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

The objective was to design and build a span with the highest load-to-weight capacity ratio.

Though 17 teams had registered, the snow and ice kept all but six teams away. Teams that showed up were Girard High School, Choffin Career and Technical Center and two teams each from Niles McKinley and Lowellville high schools.

This marked the competition’s fourth year.

“It’s been growing exponentially,” said Scott C. Martin, professor and chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at YSU.

A makeup day is tentatively scheduled for March 31 to allow teams that weren’t able to participate Friday a chance to compete.

A winner will be declared after the makeup competition.

The event is organized and supported by the YSU Department of Civil and Environmental

Engineering, the Mahoning and Trumbull County engineers’

offices and MS Consultants Inc.

The idea is to increase interest among students in civil engineering, Martin said.

“We started with just Mahoning County, but the last two years we’ve expanded to Trumbull County,” he said.

Besides an increase in participation, organizers have also seen more innovation.

“Each year, we see the kids getting more and more creative with their designs,” said Brian Hughes of MS Consultants.

Teams were given three hours to build their bridges and another hour to allow the glue to dry. Then came judging to determine how much weight each span can hold.

Judges start with a 10-pound weight in a bucket and keep adding weight until each bridge breaks. The structure with the highest load-to-weight-capacity ratio wins.

Lowellville seniors Raymond Carlson, Anthony Anfano and Geno Tkach, all 18, busied themselves assembling their 13-inch bridge, which weighs 35 grams.

Alfano said the work leading up to the competition occurred during school during both class periods and study halls.

Nearby, the Niles team of freshman Paige Freel, 14, and twin seniors Ashley and Amanda Ganyard, 18, worked on their entry.

Freel said she got involved with the competition because her mother is the team coach. For the Ganyard twins, the competition fits into their career aspirations.

“I want to be a civil engineer,” Ashley said.

“Engineering is my backup plan,” Amanda said.

Veterinary medicine is her first career choice.

It’s a career aim for members of the Choffin team, too.

Both Lance Moodie, 17, and Jaret Spayd, 18, want to be engineers, and Jaron Stewart, 18, plans to go into construction. All of the boys are juniors at Choffin.

Each of them was picked for the team after a contest at school where they competed individually.

They say they enjoy the work.

Spayd said he decided to participate “to help my education.”