Recently, a group of the University of Florida (UF) Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering students, collectively known as the “Eckhoff Student Steel Bridge Team,” became the first team ever to win the competition three years in a row and won two additional awards at the 2023 American Institute of Steel Construction.
The team took home awards for:
- 1st Place Overall
- 1st Place Economy (Construction Speed x Number of Builders)
- 1st Place Construction Speed
- Winner Frank J. Hatfield Ingenuity Award (introduced in 2022 with UF winning both years)
- 3rd Place Efficiency (Stiffness and Weight)
This competition was held at the University of California at San Diego, with 43 qualifying schools from 20 regional events out of the original field of 170 participating North American schools. The UF team’s three first-place wins were a first in the 31-year history of the competition.
According to Dr. Taylor Rawlinson, Assistant Engineer at the Weil Hall Structures & Materials Laboratory, the team’s solution to the 22-foot clear span over a 7-foot river, was a design that allowed for three distinct options: an overhead truss, a deep girder or an underslung truss. After ruling out the deep girder, the design team had to choose between the stiffer and deeper overhead truss or the faster-to-construct underslung truss. They ultimately chose the underslung truss and though the team sacrificed stiffness for construction speed, they still placed third in efficiency due to their structural optimization techniques, Rawlinson explained.
The Eckhoff Student Steel Bridge Team also boasts an impressive five previous national championship wins and Rawlinson attributes their success to the engineering program’s emphasis on both the theoretical and practical aspects of civil engineering. Part of their training includes tackling complex subjects while learning how to effectively manage a complex, 10-month project.
This year’s team consisted of:
- Joseph “Brock” Sullivan (Project Manager/Assembly Team)
- Donald Stowell-Moore (Fabrication Lead/Assembly Team)
- Artem Egorov (Assembly Team)
- Damian Blanco (Assembly Team)
- Taylor Sadhi (Design Lead)
- Anthony Ortegon Perez (Logistics Manager)
- Josh Lucero (Fabrication Lead)
- Scherezada Lozada (Finance)
- Emma Robert
- Maxwell Fletcher
- Justin Robbins
- Fletcher D’Arcy (Graduate Advisor)
Congratulations on a job well done! You can read more about the annual bridge building competition here.
Ada Lang
UFTI Communications Specialist