 "Photo: Trevor Knott")
 "Photo: Trevor Knott")
The UNH chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) hosted 11 engineering schools in the Whittemore Center for the New England Conference Steel Bridge competition on Saturday. The UNH team was disqualified, due to what the team called, "fabrication issues" that they faced only days before the event.
"The time constraint was our biggest problem," said UNH team member Chris Palelko, a senior civil engineering major from Dover, N.H.
The team said that the parts of the bridge had warped while it was being welded resulting in incompatible joints. So close to the competition, the team was forced to weld the pieces incorrectly so they could present their efforts and still enter the competition.
Because UNH still was able to register its unfinished bridge as the 11th team, three schools were able to qualify for nationals from the New England regionals. If only 10 teams had competed, only the top two teams would have been able to move on to nationals.
The UNH team of volunteered students showed enthusiastic interest in the event. Though disappointed that they were unable to contend, the team was still very pleased with the turnout of the event and pledged to compete next year.
"The importance is in the failures rather than the successes," said Steve Langevin a volunteer judge. "It's nice to see a well-designed bridge but for educational purposes, you learn from your failures."
Students involved said they enjoyed having something extra to do for their major. Participants were both eager and nervous to have their designs judged during the competition.
"We feel really bad if we don't do well because we're representing our school," said Matthew Pires, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sophomore civil engineering major from New Bedford, Mass.
The competition is judged based on real world calculations, converting the scores into overall cost of the bridge's construction.
"The cheaper the better," said Palelko.
Judges looked for teams cutting costs in the time needed for construction, the amount of material used and how many people they would have to pay. Also, accidents and penalties were weighed on to the overall price.
The bridges were first judged on how fast they were assembled. Members of the bridge were arranged in an orderly manner on either side of the taped-off area representing water. Teammates sprinted back and forth carrying the pieces one by one. Gasps and sighs came from onlookers and team members as they received a penalty for any mistake including stepping into the water, carrying too many parts or knocking over the barrier.
As the finished teams panted and recovered, the judges examined and weighed the bridge before sending it to the next station. Each steel bridge must be able to hold 2,500 pounds without a significant amount of deflection.
Weights are slowly and carefully stacked on top of the bridge to make sure the weight is even, and this portion of the judging did not require any time limit. Team discussions picked up as the bridges were near the end.
"I like it when they crash," said someone from the crowd.
A few teams' bridges dramatically collapsed, attracting a rush of the crowd's attention over to the station.
"It sounded like popcorn was inside the pipes," said a team member from the University of Connecticut (UConn) as he mimicked the popping sound of the bolts as the University of Vermont's (UVM) bridge had come toppling down.
Three teams excelled above all in all three categories. Northeastern University in first, MIT in second, and UConn in third are headed to the University of Florida Gainesville for the 2008 National Student Steel Bridge Competition.
Accredited with setting up the event was Gary Lemay, a senior civil engineering and business administration major from Meredith, N.H. As a predominantly student-run event, Lemay and his team were able to raise funds through the dean's office, private companies, part of the student activity fee, a discount from the Whittemore Center, a fee for participation, along with other fundraisers.
This year was the first time UNH entered the event since receiving second in the nation in 1996.
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