On April 9th, the “Building a Bridge Across the Milky Way” contest took place at the DTU K7/25 Quang Trung campus in Danang. Several models of bridges with distinctive architecture and high load capacity were created in the school yard and viewed by a large audience.
The idea behind the conception of the contest was the famous folk tale, about the times when the “happy shores” and the Cowherd (the star Altair) and the Weaver Girl (Vega) were connected once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. DTU has been organizing the contest for six years now to create a unique environment, where students with a passion for construction and architecture can experiment with building bridges.
DTU School of Engineering & Technology Vice-Provost Dr. Pham Phu Anh speaks
“The contest boosts student creativity and challenges them with issues concerning engineering, aesthetics, and load capacity optimization,” said Vice-Provost of the DTU School of Engineering & Technology Dr. Pham Phu Anh Huy. “This is an opportunity for those with the necessary computational and practical skills in construction and architecture to meet, share ideas and learn from the specialized advice of lecturers and the visiting experts.”
This year the “Building a Bridge Across the Milky Way” contest attracted twenty DTU teams and twelve others from various high schools in Danang, with a total of 140 contestants.
Teams load testing their bridge models, supervised by referees
Teams had a maximum of 180 minutes to build their bridges, using straws, glue, rulers, scissors and so on. Then, the officials ranked the models, based on architecture, bearing capacity and approximate load forecast.
Awards were presented to the following:
University students:
- First prize to the “BTD” team, from class K26XDC
- Second to the “C.K” team, from K28CSU-XDD
- Third to the team “Slowly” team, from K28XDD1
High school students:
- First prize to the team “Dragon Fangs” team, from class 11/4 at the Thai Phien high school
- Second to the “Three Ducks” team, from classes 10/18, 10/1, and 11/6 at the Thai Phien high school,
- Third prize to the team “Lifeline” team, from class 10/1 at the Thai Phien high school
Special additional prizes were awarded, for most beautiful bridge, a super-heavy bridge, and for most accurate forecast.
Contestants with DTU lecturers and students
This year, the organizers remarked on the beautiful and the unique bridge designs, their proportional shapes and high feasibility. At the same time, the teams calculated the bearing capacities of their bridge models, with minimal deviations between the actual loads and prior predictions.
Bach Doan Tran Hoang, a member of the “Dragon Fangs” team, from class 11/4 at the Thai Phien high school, explained: “Participating in the ‘Building a Bridge Across the Milky Way’ contest was an opportunity for my classmates and I to highlight our strengths and learn to work as a team. After we completed our model, we received many comments and suggestions on its shape and capacity, which enabled us to solve its deficiencies and increase its strength accordingly. We’re looking forward to coming to DTU again next year to meet more new friends, learn more from the experienced, higher-year students, and the friendly lecturers.”
(Media Center)