Belleville Student Building Bridges

Rocco Cerami of Belleville competed in the National Student Steel Bridge Competition recently at Clemson University. Cerami is a member of the New Jersey Institute of Technology's steel bridge team.

For more about the competition's results go to: http://www.clemson.edu/ces/steel-bridge

More than 500 students from 47 universities participated in the competition May 25 and 26.

The teams represent schools around the U.S., Canada, Mexico and China. They have designed bridges that are more than 22 feet long and must be able to hold 2,500 pounds, span an imaginary river and designed to minimize the amount of steel and the time to assemble the bridge.

"There were 47 teams and there were 47 unique solutions to the design of the bridge even though all teams were given the same problem statement and requirements," said Clemson professor Scott Schiff, who worked with a Creative Inquiry team of students majoring in civil engineering or Parks, Recreation Tourism Management to host the competition with the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering.

The team from the New Jersey Institute of Technology performance in its regional competition qualified it for the national event.

The teams showcased their assembled bridges in the display portion of the competition. They also competed in an "Fe" Quiz Bowl, named after the periodic table symbol for iron and playing off of the name of the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam taken but nearly all civil engineering students.

The construction and load competition May 27 saw the teams bring their bridges pieces and tools to the Fike Recreation Center on the Clemson campus.

Up to six members of each team built the bridges one piece at a time and were timed to see how efficiently they assembled their bridges. Other team members brought the pieces to them one at a time from a separate staging area.

Schiff said, "It was important that the pieces were delivered in the order they are needed because no piece can be left on the floor."

"It's not just designing a bridge that can hold 2,500 pounds – that's easy," he said. "It's designing a bridge that's easy to build, meets all of the design requirements and construction rules and can hold 2,500 pounds."

Teams were scored based on how long it took to assemble their bridges multiplied by the number of team members building them, how much their bridges weigh to measure how much material they use, how little their bridges deflect when weight is added and if they can hold the 2,500 pounds. Aesthetics also affected the final scores.

Schiff said steel bridge teams begin planning their bridges after each year's national competition and spend months designing and fabricating them.

"I wouldn't want to add up how many hours they devote to this project," he said.

Nadim Aziz, chairman of the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering and Clemson's associate provost for faculty development and support, called the annual steel bridge competition "a great student engagement opportunity."

He added, "These students not only solve engineering problems, but they learn about leadership, team-building and communication. Employers like that they're involved in these teams because of the skills they learn."

The American Institute of Steel Construction is the primary sponsor of the National Student Steel Bridge Competition's with American Society of Civil Engineers the primary co-sponsor.

The list of participating universities is online at: http://www.clemson.edu/media-relations/4276

Ranked No. 25 among national public universities, Clemson University is a major, land-grant, science- and engineering-oriented research university that maintains a strong commitment to teaching and student success.