News Release

Jacobs School Steel Bridge Team Wins Spot at National Competition

 Bridge team
The members of the UCSD bridge team included, (l to r) Lisa Everingham, Mieko McCue, Jason Boehm Andrew Beattie (team captain), Leonard Viducic, Daniel Tunick Adam Bogage, and Craig Hobson (welder).
A team of UCSD students took third place in the Student Steel Bridge Competition at the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference March 31 through April 2 at Cal State Fullerton. The strong showing qualified the 25-member UCSD bridge team to enter a national competition to be held May 27 and 28 in Orlando, FL.

The regional competition involved engineering students representing 17 universities in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. The event was sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Iron and Steel Institute, the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, the National Steel Bridge Alliance, and Nucor Corporation.

The UCSD Society of Civil-Structural Engineers was represented by 50 students working on 12 teams competitions: steel bridge, concrete canoe, seismic design, technical paper, surveying, concrete bowling ball, concrete Frisbee, school feud, impromptu design, soccer, tug-o-war, and mystery event. The bridge-building competition rewarded analytical and construction speed. UCSD’s team built its 22-foot bridge in less than 11 minutes. It weighed only 226 pounds and deflected less than one-half inch in aggregate under a 2,500-pound load. The students designed and fabricated the bridge during many hours in the Campus Research Machine Shop with the help of the shop’s staff.

Media Contacts

Rex Graham
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-3075
rgraham@soe.ucsd.edu