PARK CITY, Utah – Three teams of students from Michigan took home top honors during the 2019 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials National Bridge Challenge competition; an event coinciding with the organization’s annual spring meeting.

Top photo: Theo Kumpula, Collin Remilong, Keegan Erva from the EKR Miner Construction Team watch as judge Lara Lamparski, corporate account manager for Bentley Systems, looks over their entry. Photo courtesy Mississippi DOT.

The National Bridge Challenge is part of the Transportation and Civil Engineering or TRAC program that teaches secondary school students from 7^th through 12^th grade how to apply a variety of math and science concepts to common engineering problems occurring in the development of transportation systems.

This year’s National Bridge Challenge, held here on May 21, collected 370 applications from 23 states participating in the TRAC program, narrowed down to a field of 132 semi-finalists and then to 18 finalists from six states: Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Florida, Louisiana, and California.

Over a nearly eight-month period, student teams participating in the contest built model bridges made from kits provided by the TRAC program that included glue and balsa wood. They then used Model Smart and Bentley software to design their bridges, built prototypes, and used destructive testing to gauge the upper limits of the strength-to-weight ratio of their designs.

The all-day national contest began with team presentations regarding the design and testing process of their bridges before a panel of judges, followed by destructive testing of their bridge models. Winners were selected based on points awarded for their presentations and for the performance of their models in destructive testing, with all team members receiving medals. Cash prizes were also awarded, with first place teams getting $1,200, second place teams $900, and third place teams $600.

In the 7^th and 8^th grade division, the winners were:

• First place: The VS2 team of Sophie Dana, Victoria Ryan, and Paisley Siebers from Portage Middle School in Portage, Michigan.
• Second place: The INNO-Builders team of Eshwar Saikumar, Cilicia Gonzalez, and Brayden Tenhagen from the Innoacademy in Zeeland, Michigan.
• Third place: The Best team of Connor Adams, Saxton McHenry, and Talan Quin from Guntown Middle School in Guntown, Mississippi.

In the 9^th and 10^th grade division, the winners were:

• First place: The Northville Arch team of Mason Niu, Oliver Wu, and Andy Jiang from Northville High School in Northville, Michigan.
• Second place: The Knot Right Bridges team of Paige Thwing, Madelyn Misenar, and Rylee Sobecki from Brandon High School in Ortonville, Michigan.
• Third place: The Your Arch Nemesis Team of Annalise Bailey, Josh Duley, and Cole Nichols from East Union Attendance Center in Blue Springs, Mississippi.

In the 11^th and 12^th grade division, the winners were:

• First place: The EKR Miner Construction team of Theo Kumpula, Keegan Erva, and Collin Remilong from Negaunee High School in Nagunee, Michigan.
• Second place: The C.A.D. Bridge Design team of Derek Servin, Alex Harold, and Clemente Cardoso-Guevara from Annapolis High School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
• Third place: Team Omega of Will Duley, Noah Watts, Anna Mims from Blue Springs, Mississippi.

Matt Dunn, assistant district engineer of maintenance with the Mississippi Department of Transportation, served as the announcer for the event and noted that all of the students participating in the competition represented “the future” of the transportation industry.

“Events like these are what attracts middle and high school students to the field of transportation engineering,” he said. “And we in transportation are biased; we want them to become transportation engineers.” “The students of the future presenting here are unbelievable,” added Carlos Braceras, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation and AASHTO’s president. “We hope to help them design their future through such competitions, for we never have enough engineers in transportation.”