 "Photo: Courtesy of the Steel Bridge Club")
 "Photo: Courtesy of the Steel Bridge Club")
The university's Steel Bridge team won first place at a regional Student Steel Bridge Competition on April 5 and 6.
The bridge was named "Where's Tom?" after team member Tom Miner, who is frequently late to practices.
Miner did, however, show up on time for the competition.
Team Vice President Kris Weidner said out of the other 10 schools competing at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, some finished seconds after the university team, while others took more than a half an hour.
"We competed against nine or 10 other schools in the region," Weidner said. "We finished constructing our bridge in eight minutes and two seconds."
Winning the regional competition allows the team to move to the next level and compete in the national event in Gainesville, Fla. on May 23 and 24.
The core of the team, consisting of approximately 10 students, put in many hours each week during the Fall and Spring Semesters.
Freshman team member Mindy Laybourne said she put in approximately four hours of construction each weekday and additional hours on the weekends.
Weidner said the team members put in 10 to 20 hours per week during the design phase and approximately 40 hours per week during fabrication.
President Nick Ward said the team still had time to maintain social lives despite the grueling schedule.
The members are a close-knit group, who have become friends outside of the Steel Bridge team, Ward said.
When it comes to building the bridge, he said the team is first sent a rule book by the National Student Steel Bridge Competition as Fall Semester begins each year.
Weidner said the rules specify the required dimension, layout and cost of the bridge, but there is still leeway for the students to be innovative with their design.
"The specifications are slightly different each year," Weidner said. "It is usually 19 to 21 feet long, and six to seven feet high. It's on a one-tenth scale to an actual bridge."
Ward said the process of building the bridge is split into two phases.
"We spend the Fall Semester designing the bridge," he said. "Then we spend the spring fabricating it."
The team uses two computer programs, AutoCAD and STAAD, to help design the bridge, analyze the specifications and simulate strain, Ward said.
Weidner said when school is back in session for Spring Semester, the team is ready to move to the fabrication phase, practicing building the bridge. The team sets up mock staging yards and practices building the bridge and ironing out any flaws or problems with the design and construction.
Ward said this has put the team in trouble before.
"We set up a staging yard on the roof of McKinley Hall - we got yelled at for that one," he said.
Ward said the team finds new materials annually, and some of the steel is contributed by local companies, however, he said not all of the costs are covered.
The team fundraises and sometimes pulls money from its own pocket to help pay for tools and traveling expenses, he said.
"I probably paid about $500 of my own money," Ward said. "It's really important to keep the receipts to get reimbursed eventually."
Luckily for the cash-strapped students, winning the regional competition put $1,000 in the steel bridge team's coffers, inspiring them to vie for the first place prize at the national competition in Gainesville which is $10,000.
Despite the costs and hours, team members said they still have a blast with each other and the bridge building.
"My favorite part of the whole thing is putting it together and welding," Laybourne said. "I also enjoy watching the other teams, and the different ideas at work."
Ward said when it comes to the national tournament, the team is excited and hopeful, but is continuing to practice and tighten its design. Teams that win nationals finish construction in only a few minutes.
While winning is an incentive, the Steel Bridge team is more than just a hobby or a club, according to its members. It is an experience that allows the team to put its engineering knowledge to practical use and become involved with other students who share the same interests.
Sophomore Lauren Lobo said she enjoys being an active member of the team.
"It's all really fun," Lobo said. "You get to use what you learn in class in a real situation. You also get to meet other engineering students from other schools with similar interests."
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