Future engineers flex their muscles

Once again the local chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario hosted the 8th annual Bridge Building Contest Friday at St. Joseph – Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School.

Mike Pearsall says the event, which takes place during National Engineering Month, is part of the local chapters outreach to schools initiative, seeks to foster innovation by introducing and discussing the real life technical issues faced by modern engineers.

Using only carpenter glue and a supplied balsa wood kit the students, who are in grades 5 to 12, were challenged to construct a bridge that would be judged for craftsmanship, dimensional conformity to contest guidelines, engineering content, and load carrying ability.

At the end of the day the engineers critiqued each bridge then tested each bridge to see how much it would hold before breaking.