LATROBE, PA – Students from five local high schools recently participated in the 19th annual Saint Vincent College Pasta Bridge Engineering Competition.
Students from Norwin High School took home four of the five awards during the event, which took place on Monday, March 9, inside the Fred M. Rogers Center on the College’s campus. The bridges are constructed using uncooked pasta and glue.
Members of the first-place team from Norwin were Christopher “CJ” Elliott, Connor Gurekovich, Cade Kubistek, Maerek Moenssens, Beckham Warhold and Richie Zula. Their bridge withstood 30.3 pounds before buckling.
Like most of the bridges entered, they were penalized a small amount during the compliance check judging. Teams can be assessed a variety of penalties due to failure to adhere to various bridge construction guidelines and glue overuse. Violations in each category result in up to a 5% reduction in the total supported weight.
The first-place Norwin team’s official score was 29.4 pounds. The team also earned the Engineering Design and Natalie Carbone Mangini Aesthetics awards.
Each bridge has a loading platform—a piece of plywood installed at the center of the bridge and featuring a screw eye hook. A tin can is affixed to the hook, then weights ranging from 4 ounces to 3 pounds are added until the bridge buckles.
Second place in the weight-bearing competition went to Norwin students Jessa Adkins, Lily Chaney, Sienna DeJesus, Madison Kifer and Kaitlyn Tudor. Third place went to Greensburg Salem High School students Onno Lohmann and Luke Rullo.
Nine bridges were entered into the competition that included teams of students from Connellsville, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Jeannette and Norwin.
“The pasta bridge competition ranks at or near the top of my students’ list of favorite activities during the year,” said Matthew Anticole, who serves as a physics teacher in the Norwin School District. “This challenge introduces the engineering design cycle into my AP Physics curriculum in a meaningful way while rewarding careful, intentional design and construction choices.”
The event was co-sponsored by Michael Baker International, Kennametal, Gibson-Thomas Engineering and MSA: The Safety Company.
The materials, provided by the Saint Vincent College Department of Engineering, include two bags of spaghetti, 10 lasagna noodles, glue sticks and a loading platform. After registration closes, members of the SVC Engineering Club help assemble the kits and deliver them to the schools. The bridges are assembled at the students’ respective high schools before later being transported to the College for the event.
Judges for the competition included Binky Sargent from Kennametal and Kevin Scott from Michael Baker International. They judged the aesthetics and bridge design awards. Dr. Stacy Birmingham, a professor of engineering, and Dr. Sergio Paredes Navia, an assistant professor of engineering and director of engineering labs in the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing at Saint Vincent College, judged the bridges for technical compliance with competition regulations.
The event was organized by Birmingham and Dr. Derek Breid, associate professor of engineering in the Boyer School, James F. Will Endowed Chair of Engineering and chair of the Department of Engineering, as well as Saint Vincent College Engineering Club President Jordan Raynor, a senior mechanical engineering major of Lyndhurst, Ohio, and Vice President Kristen Prince, a senior environmental engineering major of Prince Frederick, Maryland.
New trophies were designed for this year’s competition by Saint Vincent senior mechanical engineering majors Elizabeth Dudley of Export and Nicholas Jackman of Sebastian, Florida.
The competition aims to increase high school students’ awareness about the role engineering plays in their lives and the career opportunities in the field, providing an opportunity for students to collaborate on the design and construction of their bridges in a fun and engaging way.
