91视频

CORVALLIS 鈥� Students hauling gang boxes labeled 鈥淪TEEL BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION鈥� into Oregon State University’s McAlexander Fieldhouse on Friday reported feeling anxious, self-critical and wracked with doubt.

Entering the field of play to compete for a national championship isn’t always an uplifting experience, even after a full year of planning and preparation.

For these college engineering students the nerves had to do with seeing how their competitors had chosen to answer the engineering problem that was the objective of this year’s (NSSBC). Arrayed around the fieldhouse were dozens of 1:10-scale steel models demonstrating unique approaches from some of the sharpest engineering students in America and beyond.

By Friday 鈥� game time 鈥� their plans were long since solidified, and it was far too late to change course.

鈥淚t’s so easy to look around now at all these other projects and go, a-ha, that’s how I should have done it,鈥� said Austin Brito of the Texas Tech University team. 鈥淚 feel like we could have gone a little lighter, smaller legs, lighter tubing, and maybe painted it.”

But others were emboldened by what they saw.

鈥淭here are a lot of great projects here, and really interesting approaches. But we’re really, really confident,鈥� said Ryan Lam, team captain of California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. 鈥淥ur trip to nationals last year was our first time going. So we took the best parts of what we saw last year and tried to implement them on our own bridge.鈥�

OSU was this year’s host of the NSSBC, an intercollegiate competition modeled on real-world engineering issues sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and other industry groups. Entries are judged on five categories 鈥� speed of construction, lightness, stiffness, construction economy and structural efficiency. The 43 teams taking part at the fieldhouse had been winnowed from more than 200 schools that competed at 18 regional competitions across North America.

The NSSBC is a bit like the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament for construction engineering nerds. One difference is most people know nothing about the NSSBC. Another is the post-college career path for the bridge-builders is all but assured.

As teams unloaded their gang boxes under a bluebird sky, OSU’s undergrads were ditching Corvallis ahead of the Memorial Day weekend and the final push of the academic year. Campus was instead thick with young people sporting NSSBC badges and team shirts. Some schools hewed heavily to themes, like 鈥淪tar Wars.鈥�

The contingent that traveled from Tongin University in China painted the arc of their bridge gold, and titled it, 鈥淒ragon in the Air.鈥�

鈥淚n China, the dragon is a very strong and auspicious element. It is always lucky,鈥� said team captain Tong Liu, whose academic focus is disaster reduction.

Day 1 involved the display portion of the event. Most of the 40 or so judges were local professionals in the private or public arenas.

Points-wise, the construction and load-testing portions on Day 2 are weighted as heavily as others, but they’re likely more fun to watch. Students wear gym shorts along with their hard hats, and zip around in tight vectors exclaiming technical jargon unintelligible to the average liberal arts major.

They’ve been working for months to get their times as low as possible.

鈥淵ou get to a point where you just know, you can’t do it any faster,鈥� said Scarlet Henriquez of the University of Florida, echoing a common sentiment.

This year’s design problem simulates a request for proposals for a scaled model demonstrating a design for a bridge over the environmentally sensitive Luckiamute River northwest of Corvallis. Damage to the banks must be minimized, complicating construction. High water in the spring means costs can be minimized by completing before summer. The contract was to be awarded to the team whose model best meets the specified requirements and project goal.

It was a straightforward problem 鈥� all the better to encourage design innovation. For example, a through bridge may provide greater stiffness than a deck bridge, but would be slower to build. Months out from regionals, teams weighed alternatives based on scoring criteria prior to fabrication.

Planning the project further involved dividing the labor. The evils of the college group project, i.e., spotty buy-in from certain team members, isn’t much of a problem on an elite elective activity like this, said Jacques Neptune, captain of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks team.

After placing in the top 10 last year with an under-truss design, the Alaskans felt an under-truss design would be best to meet the requirements.

Alaska-Fairbanks is a heavyweight in college steel bridge competition. Neptune surmised this might be due to strong student chapters of Associated General Contractors and ASCE, and because infrastructure, bridges in particular, is so important in the challenging wilds of the Last Frontier.

鈥淭here’s that, plus there’s not a lot going on. We’re always looking for stuff to do,鈥� Neptune said.

, and they aren’t necessarily college athletic powerhouses, and they certainly aren’t academic elites (no Ivy League schools competed). Among the always-imposing are South Dakota State University, University of Florida, California State University-Northridge and Colorado State University.

And as with the NCAA basketball tournament, the perennial contenders faced off with the Cinderellas. The admitted to feeling out of place among the big dogs like Alaska-Fairbanks and the University of Florida.

By game time Friday, OSU co-captain Chelsea Farnsworth had nearly reached a state of serenity after months of stress. As student co-director of the event, the senior structural engineering major has been involved since the awards banquet of the , held at Brigham Young University, when OSU was announced as the next host.

She’s been involved in everything from lining up team accommodations to sending sample materials to every school. That was all on top of her academic obligations and preparing for a summer internship at Kittelson & Associates where she hopes to prepare for a career in infrastructure engineering.

Farnsworth was finally able to start breathing again as she watched it all come together on Friday.

鈥淢eeting all these people I’ve only ever talked to by email, from all over the country, is pretty cool,鈥� she said.

Farnsworth was an artsy high school senior when she first considered becoming an engineer. A job-shadow program at her alma mater, Bend High School, provided the spark, she said. But with her father a longtime employee of the Oregon Department of Transportation, it was a natural, and unsurprising, pick, at least to her mother, Rochelle.

鈥淭his feels so natural for her,鈥� she said.

In the end, the Beavers took 23rd place. But those involved said the NSSBC has been a definite boost for the College of Engineering, helped by last weekend’s perfect weather and lack of large missteps.

OSU co-captain Oscar Gayet pointed out that their competition wasn’t just the 42 other teams at the finals. More than 200 teams from around the world participated in the overall competition.

It was Ecole de Technologie Superieure, aka ETS, a small French-Canadian engineering school, that took the top prize for the second straight year. Teams from Toluca, Mexico, Shanghai, China, as well as Puerto Rico also competed.

The six team members from Tongin University in China were preparing for a trip to Portland following the finals, including the requisite stops at Voodoo Doughnut and Multnomah Falls. Competition for a slot on the Tongin bridge-building team is fierce. Students get only one year of eligibility, and must beat out classmates to compete.

鈥淭he bridge is simple, but I think the simple structure is very beautiful,鈥� Shengyi Re said.