Wrecking for fun

People cheered when their bridge was being crushed by “The Crusher” and they cheered even louder when they smashed their bridges on the floor.
Concordia engineering’s “The Kookie Bridge” won the Most Innovative Concept at the 17th annual Bridge Building Competition, where more than 160 participants from Canada and the United States participated.
“This competition is a great way for students to apply their knowledge and it brought a lot of pride and prestige to Concordia,” said Mario Ciaramicoli, the emcee for the events.
The competition took place last Friday, March 9 in the Library and Hall building. Thirty-five teams from 13 universities built bridges out of popsicle sticks, wooden toothpicks, white glue and dental floss.
The bridges had to be one metre long and had to be pre-fabricated and assembled on the day of the competition within two hours. After the bridges were built, they underwent the crushing test to see how much weight the bridge could take. At the end of the test, the contestants followed tradition and smashed their bridges on the ground.
Competitive bridge building began at Concordia in 1984 for Concordia Civil Engineering students. Before bridge building began, it was a part of a course load in the 1960s, started by Dr. Troitsky.
“This competition encourages teamwork, which is the most important aspect of engineering. Also this competition gives students a chance for working for a deadline with limited materials,” said Ciaramicoli.

Michael Nimchuck, a Concordia Engineering student from the Erect Members team said the competition helped him learn about time management and team work.
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