Students from BYU’s Mechanical Engineering department took 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place in the Utah SAMPE Bridge Building Competition.  The contest, sponsored by the Utah chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), was held at Salt Lake Community College on April 11, 2012.  Kevin Wagner won 1^st place, a team of ME 456 students—Joseph Adams, Heather McAdoo, Wesley Fassman, and Billy Hancock—took 2^nd, and Mark Brandley, BYU’s SAMPE chapter president, came in 3^rd.

BYU entered 12 of the 27 total bridges in the competition, with entrants from Salt Lake Community College, Davis Applied Technology College, the University of Utah, and BYU.  There were both team entries and individual entries in the competition. 

Wagner’s winning bridge held 9,497 pounds, which is almost as much as last year’s national winner.  The second place bridge held 8,239 pounds, and Brandley’s third place entry held 6,852 pounds.  A second team of ME 456 students entered a bridge that held 7,341 pounds, but they were disqualified because their bridge was 11 grams overweight.  The winners took home a total of $500 in prize money.

David Fullwood, professor of Mechanical Engineering, is BYU’s SAMPE chapter advisor.  “The loads taken by the top bridges are much better than any previous year, and are competitive with the annual national competition winners,” commented Fullwood.  “We look forward to entering the national competition in May.”

For information on joining SAMPE Utah, visit www.utahsampe.org.