The West Point Bridge Design Contest

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The West Point Bridge Design Contest
bridgecontest

• Developed and Offered by

The U. S. Military Academy at West Point
Sponsored by
The American Society of Civil Engineers
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This Presentation

• Background
• Goals
• How It Works
• Rules
• Budget and Funding
• Contest Results
• The Future

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Background
Background
THE OLDEST EXTANT INSTITUTE IN THE U. S. TO
OFFER FORMAL ACADEMIC INSTRUCTION IN THE FIELD OF
CIVIL ENGINEERING
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The Nations First School of Engineering
Background
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The West Point BicentennialEngineering Design
Contest
Background

• Originally conceived as a balsa bridge-building
  contest.
• Changed to an Internet-based format
• To achieve broader participation.
• To reduce cost.
• To give the contest a high-tech character.
• To create a more realistic design experience.
• Conducted November 2001 to April 2002.
• Highly successful...

So lets keep doing it!
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Goals
Goals

• Commemorate the engineering heritage of West
  Point.
• Provide students with an opportunity to
• Learn about engineering and the engineering
  design process.
• Learn how engineers use the computer as a
  problem-solving tool.
• Learn about bridges.

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What Were Trying to Do
Goals

• Achieve broad participation among students who
  might not otherwise be interested in engineering.
• No cost to participants.
• No constraints on the number of teams per school.
• Internet-based entry, judging, and feedback.
• Provide a high-quality educational experience.
• Use simulation software to create an authentic
  engineering design experience.
• Facilitate collaboration with teachers,
  practicing engineers, other students.
• Provide supplemental learning resources.

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How It Works
How It Works

• Register on the contest website.
• Download the West Point Bridge Designer software.
• Use WPBD to design a bridge.
• Upload the design to the website for automated
  judging.
• Receive instant feedback about contest standing.
• Current top 80 teams automatically posted to the
  web Scoreboard.

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The West Point Bridge Designer
How It Works

• Look and feel of a standard CAD package.
• Easy to create a successful design.
• Hard to create a competitive design.
• A proven educational tool
• Over 500,000 copies downloaded since 2000.
• Has won two major national software awards.
• Formally endorsed as an educational tool by the
  American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Runs on Windows 98 (or later) PC.
• Free and in the public domain.

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Create a bridge design by drawing with the mouse
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And run a simulated load test to verify its
strength.
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Automated Judging and Feedback
How It Works

• Contestant uploads a bridge design file created
  with WPBD.
• The contest website
• Validates the load test and cost.
• Checks for and rejects duplicate entries.
• Determines the current standing.
• Saves the design in the contest database.
• Provides immediate feedback.
• Posts top designs to the web Scoreboard.
• Contestants may submit as many designs as they
  wish.

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Local Contests
How It Works

• Any teacher or engineering professional can set
  up a local contest
• For a single class, a school, a region, a state.
• Procedure
• Select one Bridge Design Project (site
  configuration and load case)
• Submit e-mail request to the WPBDC Contest
  Coordinator.
• Receive a Local Contest Code.
• Contestants enter this code when registering and
  when designing bridges.
• Web-based Local Contest Scoreboard posted with
  updated standings every 24 hours.

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Contest Schedule
How It Works

• National Contest January 3 - June 1, 2007
• Local Contests January 3 - July 1, 2007
• In future years, we will facilitate local
  contests from September to July

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Prizes
How It Works

• We are no longer able to offer national-level
  prizes.
• Top 10 teams in each contest zone will receive a
  certificate signed by the Contest Director.
• Many local contests offer prizes.

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Eligibility
Rules

• Anyone can enter, submit designs, and receive
  feedback.
• Eligibility for national-level recognition
• Students age 13 through grade 12...
• Who are attending U.S. schools...
• Or are U.S. citizens attending schools overseas.
• We comply with COPPA (Childrens On-Line Privacy
  Protection Act).

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Teams
Rules

• Contestants may compete individually or in teams
  of two.
• Prizes indirectly encourage two-person teams.
• Teams performbetter!

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An Additional Learning Resource
How It Works

• Helps teachers integrate the Bridge Designer into
  classroom instruction in math, science, and
  technology.
• Provides hands-on projects, based on rigorous
  math and science concepts.
• Available for free download from our website.

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Designing and Building File-Folder Bridges
How It Works

• LA1 Build a Model of a Truss Bridge
• LA2 Test the Strength of Structural Members
• LA3 Analyze a Truss
• LA4 Design a Truss Bridge with a Computer
• LA5 Design and Build a Model Truss Bridge

Design
Prefabrication
Construction
Testing
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Budget and Funding
Funding

• Project Budget Approximately 75,000
• Contest Coordinator salary
• Publicity
• Project Funding
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• Other donors...we hope!
• All software and web development provided by
  USMA faculty at no cost to the project.

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Project Funding
Funding
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Contest Results - Participation
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Contest Results - Geographic
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Some Representative Feedback
Results

• Its a great program and the kids love it. I
  never had them be so excited to work on a
  computer program before.
• I hope this contest survives many more years -
  it's awesome!
• My students are quickly learning engineering
  nomenclature I've been impressed with their
  learning.
• The bridge design software is fabulous! The
  activity resources are even better than the
  software! I find the activity packets well
  written and illustrated. They practically teach
  themselves!
• I'm deeply impressed by how you manage all those
  competitors and entries. Good work!
• GREAT JOB!!!!!! What a terrific way to introduce
  kids to engineering.

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Some Representative Feedback
Results

• The Bridge Design Contest was an adventure. 
  Educational, fun, competitive, workmost
  everything rolled into one package.  The students
  are mentally exhausted and almost lost without
  another day to take just a few minutes to
  consider another design improvement.
• A friend told me about the bridge design
  program.... What fun! My 13-year old son has
  spent HOURS with it. Hes a recovering Lego
  addict, yet he declared WPBD more satisfying than
  just snapping bricks together. We havent come
  anywhere close to the best scores yet, but hes
  motivated to try.... At first, he just tried
  things willy-nilly. Now, hes started coming to
  me with questions about strategies based on
  analysis. A budding engineer?

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Some Representative Feedback
Last Year

• I just wanted to convey to you what a great,
  instructive, and user-friendly program this is
  for middle school students. All fifty 6th
  graders were able to design a working bridge on
  their own within 20 minutes of individual work
  time. This session motivated many to download
  the program at home and continue working and
  competing in their own time. The instant
  feedback ... about individual standings is
  fantastic. Bridge-building has caught on in many
  other grade levels throughout the school.
  Students are choosing to stay in during their
  recess time to design, and the math department
  has integrated the program into their classes as
  well. I wanted to convey to you the program's
  success at our school and the enthusiasm it has
  created. I don't know if we will generate any
  winners (!), but there are certainly many more
  eager engineers in our school!

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The Future
The Future

• We hope to continue running the contest as long
  as
• Student participation is strong.
• We can continue to get funding.
• You can help by
• Participating in the contest.
• Encouraging others to participate.
• Let a math, science, or technology teacher know
  about the contest.

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The West Point Bridge Design Contest
bridgecontest
Then...
...and now