The College of New Jersey sent its first team ever to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Regional Steel Bridge competition at New York City College of Technology on April 13 and 14.
The team consisted of senior engineering majors Thomas Lombardi , Shannon Murray, Danielle Novak and John Savage , all of whom designed the project. Junior engineering majors Brian Spieker and Kevin Campbell helped the team construct the bridge, which placed first in aesthetics and fourth in stiffness.
As part of the requirements to participate in the regional Steel Bridge Competition, the team was also required to compete in the Mead Paper Competition where it won first place, finishing ahead of New York City College of Technology (2nd) and Columbia University (3rd). Novak represented the team’s work, which consisted of a 2,000 word written paper and an oral presentation.
Other competing schools were Polytechnic University, City College of New York, Cooper Union, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and Rowan University.
Most of the schools that competed in the Mead Paper Competition also moved on to compete in the Steel Bridge competition. The bridge competition scores participants in six categories: construction time, construction efficiency, lightness, stiffness, aesthetics and structural efficiency.