4/2/97 Contact: Tiao Chang, 614-593-1462
Assignment Editors, Reporters, Photographers, Videographers: Bridge construction will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 5 in the Stocker Center parking lot on the West Green of the Athens campus. The bridges will be dismantled at 4 p.m.
ATHENS, Ohio -- Civil engineering students from 10 universities in Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania will meet Saturday, April 5 at Ohio University for the 1997 Ohio Valley Steel Bridge Competition.
Student teams will construct steel bridges they designed during the competition, which will begin at 8 a.m. and continue until 4 p.m. in the Stocker Center parking lot on the West Green of the Athens campus.
The bridges, each 20 feet long and 5 feet high, will be judged based on time of construction, weight, appearance and performance under strain from loaded weights. Judges include representatives from the Ohio Department of Transportation, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Burgess and Niple Inc. and Jones-Stuckey, both Columbus-based engineering consulting firms.
The event is a qualifying round for the national bridge building competition, which is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Institute of Steel Construction. Local sponsors of the regional competition include the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the university's Department of Civil Engineering and the Ohio University Student Chapter of the ASCE.
"It gives engineering students a great deal of satisfaction to apply what they've learned in the classroom and to see how what you've learned will work in the real world," said Adam Smith, president of the local ASCE student chapter and a senior in civil engineering. Smith was a member of the Ohio University student team that participated in the 1996 competition at the University of Kentucky.
Participating universities include Ohio University, Ohio State University, Bowling Green State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton, Cleveland State University, Ohio Northern University, Youngstown State University, University of Kentucky and Carnegie-Mellon University.
Teams that finish in first and second place in the regional competition are eligible to compete in the national Steel Bridge Competition, set for May 23-24 at California Polytechnical Institute in Pomona, Calif. All participating teams will receive $150, the second place team will receive $500, and the first place team will receive $1,000.