The Oregon State University steel bridge team had an outstanding showing at the national competition as the team finished in ninth-place out of 49 teams at the event held on May 23-24, 2014, in Akron, Ohio. The OSU team consisted of Chelsea Farnsworth, Peter Mercer, Jessee Bogenoff, Chris Derbyshire and captains, Barry Maslen and Austin Williams and qualified for the national event by winning the regional competition at Portland State University.

The contest involved design, fabrication/welding, and timed construction of an approximately 20-foot span bridge evaluated on lightness, construction speed, and stiffness in supporting 2500 lbs of load. The OSU team improved its scores in a number of categories over their performance in regionals at PSU.

“I am tremendously proud of this year’s team as they excelled in all aspects of the project,” said OSU associate professor and ASCE student chapter faculty advisor Tom Miller. “Their success was truly a team effort. The support this year from the School of Civil and Construction Engineering, College of Engineering, OSU Student Foundation, OSU Department of Physics, ASCE Oregon Section, ASCE Capital Branch and a number of generous individual donors was wonderful and made the win at regionals, great performance at nationals and preparation for future successes possible.”

The competition, which saw 208 teams compete at the regional level, was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Steel Construction.