BY Teri Nagel
Nine months, one regional victory and about 50 practice runs culminated with Tech's best bridge builders competing for a national title at the American Society of Civil Engineers/American Institute of Steel Construction student steel bridge competition.
In the end, the Jackets secured 15th place out of 43 of the nation's best teams at the competition in late May at California State University, Northridge in Los Angeles. The overall winner was North Dakota State University.
Tech's invitation to the national meet was automatic when the team won first place in the regional competition hosted by the Georgia Tech ASCE student chapter in April. Tech beat teams from Clemson University, The Citadel, North Carolina State University, University of South Carolina, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Duke University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Trident Technical College.
Bridges are judged on such factors as speed of construction, aesthetics, strength and efficiency. Tech's steel bridge could hold about 2,500 pounds. The bridge weighed 297 pounds, ranking Tech 29th in that category at the national competition.
During the national contest, the Tech team constructed its bridge in just less than five and a half minutes, a 16th-place finish.
Team leadership began conceptualizing the bridge in August 2006 by building on last year's lessons learned and placing constructability and ease of fabrication first on the priority list.
"Getting our design finalized took longer than last year, but overall fabrication took much less time thanks to this process," said veteran team member and graduate student Richie Kmack, CE 06.
Other veterans were graduate student Mike Scott, CE 06, and doctoral candidate Robert Hurt. Additional team members were undergraduates Gabriene Hansen, Nate Blong, Ben Allread, Kris Neighbor and Matthew Crane.
The biggest challenge for the team is continuity from year to year. Some competing universities offer course credit for participating in the steel bridge competition but Georgia Tech's volunteer team must begin recruiting new members early each fall.
"I encourage anyone who is interested to get involved whether he or she is in the structural (engineering) concentration or not," said Scott. "This is a design competition, but it also forces the team to work together and to maintain an organized, project management-type mind-set."
|
