Media Advisory: At UB, Bridge-Building Is a Competitive Sport

More than a hundred students from the region's top engineering institutions, including Cornell, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson and UB, will compete for the title of Upstate New York champion in the annual steel-bridge building competition to be held today (Friday, April 17, 2009) in Alumni Arena on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

From 9:15 a.m. to 1 p.m., teams of students from 10 colleges and universities in upstate New York and Quebec will construct steel bridges as quickly as possible. Then, one by one, each bridge will be transported outside the gym and subjected to loads of 2,500 pounds of steel: only the strongest will remain intact!

The winning team will attend the national competition in Las Vegas in June.

The steel bridge competition is designed to educate participants about the conception and design phases of bridge construction, as well as fabrication, erection and testing. The bridges are judged on strength, durability, constructability, usability, function and safety.

The event is free and open to the public.

It is being sponsored by the UB Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and the UB student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Great visuals! Good feature story! Best time for media: 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

Press arrangements: Ellen Goldbaum in the UB Office of University Communications at 645-5000 ext. 1415 or on-site at 771-9255, or Todd Snyder, on-site at 645-4006. Snyder is a UB instructor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and faculty advisor for the UB student chapter of the ASCE.