pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Photo by JR Ancheta/UAF

Students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Engineering and Mines won first place in all categories for their steel bridge entry in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Pacific Northwest Conference.

Every year, the ASCE issues a new set of rules designed to challenge young engineering students. Students apply must apply concepts learned in the classroom and develop a competitive and innovative scale-model steel bridge that is within the guidelines set.

At the competition, the bridge is then scored on many different factors, such as weight and rigidity, construction speed and even the number of team members building the bridge. The UAF team led the way in all areas from overall performance to structural efficiency and even aesthetics.

“The bridge weighed less than 120 pounds and was assembled at the competition with only three team members in less than 17 minutes,” noted team captain Daniel Hjortstorp. “We scored 40% better than even second place”.

The conference was held at Idaho State University, where 13 different Universities from the region convened to compete in many challenges, including a concrete canoe competition.  This was UAF’s second year competing in the concrete canoe challenge and they earned 4^th place.

“Our success is built on camaraderie and team-spirit…build a team and the project will build itself,” says Hjortstorp. “Our countless hours spent designing and constructing taught us a lot about what a team with a common goal can accomplish.”

The UAF Steel Bridge team will go on to compete in the national competition on May 22 at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

In addition to Hjortstorp, student members of the Steel Bridge Team are:

Will Riley*, a senior in mechanical engineering
Elliot Anderson*, a junior in civil engineering
Nathan Goering*, a senior in civil engineering
Nathaniel Barnett*, a freshman in mechanical engineering
Chase Delatush*, a junior in mechanical engineering
Catherine Estus*, a sophomore in civil engineering
Zack Sherman, a junior in construction management
Scott Taylor, a freshman in civil engineering
Alexa Hinzman, a senior in civil engineering
Fei Li, a graduate student in civil engineering
Doug Keller, a sophomore in mechanical engineering
Krish Balasubramanian, a graduate student in civil engineering
Daniel Bozone, a sophomore in civil engineering
Ryan Burnham, a sophomore in civil engineering

*The core team members