CSUN’s Steel Bridge team upheld a long, proud campus tradition by qualifying for the national competition for the 11th time in 15 years. The competition, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, requires teams to design, fabricate and build a scaled steel bridge in response to a mock request for proposal. The bridge is then judged on such characteristics as stiffness, lightness, construction speed, aesthetics, efficiency and economy.
The CSUN team, which included students from freshmen to seniors, placed first in last April’s regional competition, against teams from 17 universities from Arizona, California, Nevada and Hawaii. At the national contest, held at the University of Washington May 30 through June 2, CSUN came in 16th overall out of 49 teams, placing in the top third of the pack.
What makes the team’s repeated successes so remarkable is the fact that the Steel Bridge competition is entirely extracurricular at CSUN—it is not part of any capstone senior design project. “For them to do so well is an indication of how well the program is preparing them for industry and the profession,” says Nazaret Dermendjian, professor and chair of the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management.