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A group of students is learning advanced structural engineering techniques and preparing to compete with the top engineering design schools in the country as part of the regional and national rounds of the National Student Steel Bridge Competition.
The competition, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), attracts over 200 engineering schools nationally to the regional level. From these regional competitions, approximately 40 teams qualify for the national competition, an invitation-only event held each May.
Lafayette’s design team is comprised of senior civil engineering majors Paul Angelucci (Collingswood, N.J.), Kyle Henning (Rochester, N.Y.), Kyle DeFranceschi (Catasauqua, Pa.), Michael Lemken (Emerson, N.J.), W. Thomas Barlow (Bethlehem, Pa.), and Sean McAuley (Staten Island, N.Y.). The students are working on the project as an independent study this semester with Stephen Kurtz, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, as their adviser.
In the spring semester, all members of Lafayette’s team will contribute to fabricating the bridge for the national competition. This typically involves about 10 additional students consisting of many members of the College’s ASCE chapter.
“The object of the competition is to produce a bridge made of structural steel that is efficient and easy to construct,” says Kurtz. “In typical years, winning bridges are constructed in about three minutes, weigh approximately 125 pounds, and deflect less than half an inch at mid-span.”
This year’s regional competition will be hosted by the University of Delaware in mid-April. The national competition will be held May 22-23 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Lafayette has qualified for the national competition in three of the last four years, including a fifth-place national finish in 2007.