Fanshawe team has strong showing at bridge building competition 

A team of Civil Engineering Technology students from the Donald J. Smith School of Building Technology and Design recently returned from the 42nd annual Troitsky Bridge Building Competition, a three-day event hosted by Concordia University that challenges students to design and build the strongest model bridge using only popsicle sticks, toothpicks, white glue and dental floss.
 

The Fanshawe team, comprised of second-year students Yousif Al-Obaldi, Kyla Jane Jabinal, Dustin Michienzi, Dan Nestorenko and Paul Santos along with third-year students David Lang and Jackson Lees, were up against teams from across Canada and the United States.  
 

The results of the competition are primarily determined using a hydraulic press, dubbed “The Crusher”, to test the strength of each bridge. Fanshawe’s bridge, which was constructed using 10,000 popsicle sticks, six litres of white glue and 240 metres of dental floss and weighed in at nearly 10 kilograms, withstood 2,734 kilograms (6,027 pounds) of force before it failed.  
 

It was a result that earned the team a third-place finish for the “Greatest Ultimate Load” award and the “Greatest Structural Load” award, the latter of which is determined by the load to weight efficiency of the structure (calculated by dividing the total load by the bridge’s weight). 
 

“Our prediction was that the bridge could support about 1,000 kilograms, so when the reading climbed over 2,700 kilograms I was pretty thrilled,” says Jackson Lees, who participated in last year’s competition and returned as a third-year student to help coach the team. 
 

Matt Carson, professor and program coordinator of the Civil Engineering Technology program, says watching his students excel at this year’s competition was truly inspiring. 
 

“Competing against students largely made up of university teams, they proved that Fanshawe’s talent, technical design and manufacturing skills can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anyone,” he says. “Their success reflects not only their hard work, but also the dedication and guidance of faculty mentors like Solomon Asantey and Amneh Kalloush. We couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished on the national stage.” 
 

Matt adds that the Fanshawe Student Union’s Student Life Educational Fund (SLEF), established to offset the cost of activities relevant to student education, made the team’s travel to Montreal possible this year.
 

Paul Santos says the team had confidence heading into the competition.  
 

“Going into the weekend we knew we had a good bridge design,” he says. “As the team captain, I was so proud of our team and all the work that we did when we received those awards. I knew that we had it in us.”  
 

Both Jackson and Paul say they enjoyed all aspects of the competition, which included networking and social events and a career fair.  
 

“It was an awesome experience,” says Jackson. “We got to meet civil engineering students from other schools and learn about their experiences.”  
 

For Paul, being able to discuss design strategies, materials and problem-solving approaches with students from other schools gave some new perspectives on engineering design and teamwork. “Sharing that info was very valuable to me,” he says. 
 

This year’s competition marks just the third year that colleges were allowed to participate. Fanshawe was the only Ontario college to send a team to the 2024 competition. That year’s entry finished in the top 10 having withstood 490 kilograms (1,080 pounds) of force before it failed and was recognized with the “Most Beautiful Bridge” award.  
 

Fanshawe’s entries have come a long way in three years and Paul has high hopes for next year’s competition. “I strongly believe that next year, with some minor tweaks, we can do even better and hopefully even win the competition,” he says. 

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