Lafayette Hosts Mid-Atlantic Steel Bridge Competition April 27-29

Lafayette's Steel Bridge Team took first place at last year's Mid-Atlantic competition.

The Lafayette Steel Bridge team is hosting the Mid-Atlantic American Society of Civil Engineers Student Conference April 27-29 in Kirby Sports Center.  The top qualifying teams will move on to the National Student Steel Bridge Competition May 25-26 at Clemson University.

The competition, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers, attracts more than 200 engineering schools nationally to the regional level. From these regional competitions, approximately 40 teams qualify for the national competition. Lafayette has made the national tournament six of the last seven years and placed seventh in the nation for the last two years. Last year’s team won the regional competition.

At the Mid-Atlantic competition, Lafayette will compete against teams from 11 colleges and universities including Bucknell, University of Delaware, Drexel, Lehigh, Penn State, Temple, and Widener.

The team’s task is to design and fabricate a bridge that will support a randomly patterned 2,500-pound load over a span of approximately 22 feet. The bridge, which must be less than five feet tall, is fabricated in sections and assembled during timed construction during the competition. Teams are judged on construction speed, bridge weight, stiffness, lateral integrity, and aesthetics.

This year’s team includes civil engineering majors Sam Farber-Kaiser ’12 (New Rochelle, N.Y.), Donovan Hayes ’12 (Harrisburg, Pa.), Walter Martin ’12 (New York, N.Y.), Katie Reinhardt ’12 (Tabernacle, N.J.), Matt Scheps ’12 (Woodcliff Lake, N.J.), Anna Schulman ’12 (Swampscott, Mass.), and Lauren Weber ’12 (Wantagh, N.Y.). The group’s adviser is Steve Kurtz, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.