The Michigan State University College of Engineering team captured 19th place – out of a total of 49 competing teams – at this year’s National Steel Bridge Competition.
The annual event was held this past weekend at the University of Akron.
The Spartan Spanners Steel Bridge team, from the college’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, made it to the finals after receiving four first-place honors at the regional competition, held earlier this year at the University of Detroit Mercy.
The Student Steel Bridge Competition contest challenges future civil engineers to display their skills in steel design, steel fabrication and teamwork.
Unlike some competitions, Steel Bridge requires students to design and build their product from scratch. After converting their design to shop drawings, teams build the structure piece by piece.
Bridges are judged on a variety of qualities, including lightness, economy, appearance and various measures of strength and stability.
MSU team members included captains Roberto De Silva and Yerbol Zhakupov. Build team members were Ashley Roberts, Michael Norcia, Ben Globke, Eric Kamps and Chris Rothhaar.
For more information on the competition, please visit http://www.nssbc.info/