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Confident that Lafayette’s steel bridge team would reach new heights this year in competition, civil engineering major Joseph Danatzko ’07 (West Caldwell, N.J.) suggested the making of a documentary film to chronicle the team’s progress.
His father, freelance videographer Denis Danatzko P’07, volunteered to create a film over the course of the spring semester to showcase the work that goes into preparing for competition. He will follow the students throughout the process, culminating in the regional competition May 5. If the team advances, it will compete in the national competition at the end of May; a date for that event has yet to be determined.
“The work the independent study group has done has taken the project to the next level in terms of education for students,” explains Joseph Danatzko. “Lafayette has, with the guidance of the civil and environmental engineering faculty – specifically Professor [Stephen] Kurtz, grown in its ability so as to be able to compete with the top engineering design schools in the nation.
“A documentary style video would allow for the department to recruit more and younger members of the Lafayette community to compete in the bridge competition. It will serve to both aid future teams in their ability to compete more effectively and allow them to showcase and build on what previous years have begun. Also, this documentary will hopefully serve as a more effective means of fund raising for future bridge teams through both alumni and corporate sponsor support.”
Along with Joseph Danatzko, the core design team includes civil engineering majors Eric Backlund ’07 (Parlin, N.J.), Daniel Kucz ’07(Newfoundland, Pa.), and Lee Vanzler ’07 (Sharon, Mass.).
Kucz believes the documentary’s greatest potential lies in the recruitment of first-year students. He notes that participating in the steel bridge competition can be an intimidating commitment, and the film will help students see the benefits of contributing throughout their time at Lafayette, not just as seniors.
“The documentary will help the steel bridge team and the engineering department in a way that might not directly affect our current campaign on the steel bridge national championship,” he says. “Its impact on the future campaigns has the potential to be phenomenal. One of the major issues with steel bridge is the continual recruitment of younger underclass engineers into the team. Speaking from experience, it is easy as a first-year student to be overwhelmed in the face of senior civil engineers who have four years of experience in the classroom and lab. Having major participation from first- and second-year students ensures the future will be bright for the Lafayette steel bridge team. I hope this documentary will make it apparent that, as a first- or second-year student at Lafayette, there is the potential to be a part of a nationally recognized and nationally competitive steel bridge team.”
Kurtz, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is impressed with the team’s progress so far, but concedes there is much work to be done this semester if the team expects to be successful on the regional and national levels. He is confident that his students are up to the task.
“[The current team] is the best we’ve ever had,” he says. “They’ve done a very good job of thinking broadly. Their design began with no preconceived notions of what it would be. As the design evolved, the team remained open-minded. They tried and discarded many outlandish ideas. Yet, they still have a long way to go.”
This semester, the design team will be joined by more students who will assist in fabricating the bridge. They include civil engineering majors Craig Bloom ’07 (Monaca, Pa.), Aaron Buchman ’08 (Williamsport, Md.), Lee Chrisman ’07 (Essex, Conn.), Kyle DeFranceschi ’09 (Catasaqua, Pa.), James Horting ’08 (Elizabethtown, Pa.), John Mitchell ’08 (River Vale, N.J.), Jared Kozemko ’08 (Wilkes Barre, Pa.), and Abdul-Rahman Salkini ’07(Aleppo, Syria).
“During fabrication, every member of the team is equally important in fabricating the bridge, whether he or she is a first-year student or a senior,” says Kucz. “The only difference is that the senior students are there to help teach the first- and second-year students how to build what is specified on the plans and drawings. Also, there is an underlying desire in each one of us to instill the passion we have for steel bridge in younger team members so that the Lafayette steel bridge team will prosper for years to come.”
Kurtz expects the bridge to be completed by April, when the focus will shift to assembly practice. The build team for the regional and national competitions will be selected through tryouts, and will practice 10 hours per week from mid-April through the competition dates.
The design team presented its plans to a select group of alumni last semester. The design phase of the project was completed by Backlund, Danatzko, Kucz, and Vanzler as an independent study project under Kurtz’s direction.
The National Student Steel Bridge Competition attracts over 200 engineering schools nationally to regional competitions. From these regional competitions, approximately 40 teams qualify for the national competition held each May. The object of the event is to produce a bridge made of structural steel that is efficient and easy to construct. The structural efficiency score is determined by an equation that considers the weight of the bridge and its deflections, under a randomly located load of 2,500 pounds. The construction cost is determined by an equation that considers the speed with which the bridge may be assembled on the day of competition from size-limited parts over a mock river. 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.
Last year’s steel bridge team took first place at the regional competition, qualifying them for the national competition.