NJIT Steel Bridge Team is a team within the New Jersey Institute of Technology's ASCE chapter). It consists of undergraduate students who are attending at NJIT, majoring in civil engineering, and also members of ASCE. Every year, the team competes against other schools in a steel bridge competition.
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Every year, the team has a few fund raising events, which are very crucial for the competition because the team needs to have proper finance in order to order parts and fabricate them. Besides fund raising, sponsors from other corporates and companies are very important too.
A lot of time the team members get together and have outside activities such as hiking, paint ball, go cart, or whatever anyone wants to do. The team also does many productive activities such as visiting high schools and talking about civil engineering and the steel bridge competition.
There is at least a meeting every week talking about the process of the team and keeping members informed. Meetings are always held during common hours. Sometimes pizzas and drinks are served.
The competition
The objective of the competition is to design a light bridge yet strong and economically and assembly it fast with as few team members as possible.
The competition has 3 processes: Design & testing, which students do that themselves using programs, knowledges they learned from classes, and sometimes help from professors and alumni; Fabrication, which is when students grind, weld, and fit the parts together; and finally Assembly, which is when students put the parts together to achieve the designed bridge.
There are 6 categories in scoring: Display (how the bridge look), construction speed (time management), construction economy (low cost to build), lightness, stiffness (aggregate deflection), and structural efficiency (a formula used to calculate this based on weight and deflection).
The competition occurs every year. It is hosted at different places every time. This year, 2008, the regional competition will be hosted at Polytechnic Institute of NYU, New York City, on Saturday April 4, 2009; and the national competition will be hosted at University of Nevada, Las Vegas on May 22 and May 23.
If there are 1-4 teams competing in the region, the best team will proceed to the national competition
If there are 5-10 teams competing in the region, the 2 best teams will proceed to the national competition
If there are more than 10 teams competing in the region, the 3 best teams will proceed to the national competition
The price for winning the national competition is $2,500
Awards
2012 National Competition at Clemson, SC 15th Place Overall - Highest in History 9th Place in Construction Speed
2012 Regional Competition 1st Place Overall 1st Place Economy 1st Place Stiffness 1st Place Build Time
2010 National Competition (at Purdue University)
2010 Regional Competition (Regional competition score-sheet)
2009 National Competition (at University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
2009 Regional Competition (Regional competition score-sheet)
2008 National Competition (at University of Florida)
2008 Regional Competition
2007 National Competition 2007 Regional Competition
2006 National Competition
2006 Regional Competition
2005 National Competition
2005 Regional Competition
· Second Place Overall
· First Place Efficiency
· First Place Aesthetics
· First Place Stiffness
2004 National Competition
2004 Regional Competition
2003 National Competition
2003 Regional Competition
· First Place Overall
· First Place Lightness
· First Place Efficiency
· First Place Economy
· First Place Stiffness
· First Place Construction Speed
2002 National Competition
2002 Regional Competition
· First Place Overall
· First Place Efficiency
· First Place Stiffness
2001 National Competition
2001 Regional Competition
· Second Place Overall
· First Place Efficiency
· First Place Aesthetics