Lakehead Engineering students scoop top prizes at steel bridge competition

A Lakehead Engineering delegation including the Steel Bridge Team and four other Civil Engineering students has achieved several top prizes at the 2023 ASCE Western Great Lakes Student Symposium hosted by the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The Lakehead University Steel Bridge Team made up of captain Josh Fiegehen, co-captain Cameron Nash, Will Neufeld, Matthew Boustani, Stephen Gonzales and Kriss Patel, won three awards at the event that featured students from 13 universities. The team achieved second place in aesthetics, third place in structural efficiency and third place in stiffness. 

Students were challenged to design and fabricate a 23-foot steel bridge, and then assemble it as quickly as possible at competition while navigating a seven-foot-wide river. The bridge was then load tested to confirm its strength and stiffness.

“The bridge competition was a true test of our engineering skill and mental toughness,” said Josh Fiegehen, team captain. 

“The team really pushed themselves to get the bridge ready for competition, but it was worth it for the once in a lifetime project that we’ll never get to experience again. Our success in the stiffness and structural efficiency categories is a testament to the strength and durability of our design, while our second-place finish in aesthetics shows that we were able to create a bridge that was both functional and visually appealing.”

In addition, Civil Engineering students, Zachary Morgan and Harshit Garg won second place in Concrete Frisbee Golf competition. Nadine Elmehriki and Matt Scott, also Civil Engineering students, participated in Concrete Cornhole competition. 

The Lakehead delegation included faculty advisor, Dr. Yanglin Gong with support from technologist Cory Hubbard, who also served as the advisor for the concrete competitions.

“The bridge competition is a perfect example of integrating fun and excitement with learning at Lakehead Engineering. Observing the failure of bridges of our competitors during the load tests gave our students an unforgettable lesson about structural behaviours,” said Dr. Gong.

Lakehead technologist Cory Hubbard added,

“I am very proud of the hard work the students put into these competitions. This is the first time we have competed in the concrete cornhole and concrete frisbee contests. They did very well placing second, and both teams are looking forward to next year for these awesome competitions.”

Professor Janusz Kozinski, Dean of Engineering at Lakehead University, said, 

“This was a superb performance by our Lakehead Engineering team competing against some of the top universities in the United States. They did an outstanding job representing us and we are very proud of their achievements.”