Summit County Engineer's Office

Alan Brubaker, P.E., P.S., Summit County Engineer, hosted the 12th Annual Miniature Bridge Building Competition on February 3rd, 2011 in the Student Union at the University of Akron.  Thirty teams from area high schools built miniature bridges of their own designs, made out of balsa wood and according to strict guidelines.  Archbishop Hoban High School came in first place by constructing a bridge that held 61 pounds.  Firestone High School Team 2 claimed the second spot as well as coming away with the Aesthetics Award. 

The competition is designed to encourage high school students to implement scientific and mathematical principles they have learned in the classroom.  Along with Engineer Alan Brubaker, fifteen engineering consulting firms co-sponsor the annual event and offer scholarship opportunities for competition participants who choose a career in civil engineering.  Arcadis, Burgess & Niple, CT Consultants, Euthenics, Hammontree & Associates, Jones-Stuckey Ltd, KCI, M-E Companies, ms consultants, Osborn Engineers, Palmer Engineering, Richland Engineering, E.L. Robinson, URS, and Hatch Mott McDonald were the participating consulting firms this year.  Representatives from all fifteen firms were on board with displays, handouts and words of encouragement to help bridge the gap from applied bridge design to a real life professional career in the field.  College students majoring in civil engineering at The University of Akron, including a past participant and scholarship recipient, and professional engineers from the Summit County Engineer’s Office were also busy circulating among the teams to cheer them on while teams competed to build the winning bridge.

After about three hours of construction, the bridges were brought up on stage to be load tested until their ultimate demise.  Bridge after bridge broke under the increased weight hanging from the center of the bridges.  The winning team members from Archbishop Hoban were Dylan Starvarz, Daniel Ulinski, and Eric Maynard. They were rewarded with a trophy and cash prizes for their impressive efforts.  Second place winners from Firestone High School were Ben Wilson, Drew Bangachon, and Vince Musci.  These young men were rewarded with cash prizes in addition to gift certificates for winning the Aesthetics Award.

Participating high schools:

Akron Early College

Archbishop Hoban

Barberton

Coventry

Cuyahoga Falls

Firestone

Four Cities Educational Compact

Garfield

Green

Mogadore

Norton

Our Lady of the Elms

Portage Lakes Career Center

Springfield

Six District Engineering Academy

Twinsburg

Western Reserve Academy