undergraduate

On April 20, 2025, the 7th edition of the annual “Building a Bridge across the Milky Way” competition made an impressive return at DTU’s campus located at 120 Hoang Minh Thao Street, Da Nang City. Marking its seventh consecutive year, this year’s competition continued to draw strong interest, attracting nearly 150 contestants, including DTU students and high school students from across the city. The event created a vibrant, enthusiastic, and creative atmosphere of competition.

 

Armed with knowledge, skills, keen observation, and dexterous hands, contestants created many bridge models with appealing designs, high load capacity, and impressive accuracy in load prediction.

 

Students show their creativity by designing unique bridge models

 

The “Building a Bridge across the Milky Way” competition draws inspiration from the symbolic image of a bridge that connects the joyful reunion of Nguu Lang and Chuc Nu on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month - a touching element of an ancient legend. From this idea, DTU initiated and has sustained the competition for seven years, offering a creative, engaging, and practical playground for students passionate about Construction and Architecture.

 

Opening speech by Dr. Pham Phu Anh Huy, Vice Rector of the DTU School of Engineering & Technology 

 

Speaking at the event, Dr. Pham Phu Anh Huy, Vice Rector of the DTU School of Engineering & Technology, said: “This year marks the 7th time DTU has hosted the ”Building a Bridge across the Milky Way” competition - a meaningful academic playground aimed at sparking and nurturing creativity among students. Over the past seven seasons, the competition’s appeal has remained strong, consistently receiving enthusiastic participation from young people throughout the city. More than just a test of bridge design and construction, this competition presents interesting challenges in engineering, aesthetics, load-bearing, and predictive accuracy. It’s a great opportunity for students who are passionate about Construction and Architecture to demonstrate their thinking, calculation, and hands-on skills in a highly specialized and creative environment.”

 

This year’s competition attracted 29 teams of nearly 150 talented contestants from DTU and various high schools in Da Nang.

 

Teams testing bridge load capacity under judges’ supervision

 

Each team had up to 180 minutes to use materials such as paper straws, glue, rulers, and scissors to build their bridge models. Once the construction phase ended, the models were evaluated by the Organizing Committee based on criteria including architectural aesthetics, load-bearing capacity, and accuracy in load prediction.

 

Bridge models designed by students

 

After the evaluation period, the results of the 7th “Building a Bridge across the Milky Way” Competition at DTU were announced as follows:

 

University Division:

-    First prize: Team “BUILD BRIDGES - BUILD SUCCESS” from classes K29XDQ (Construction Management Technology) and K29XDC (Bridge and Road Construction), DTU Faculty of Civil Engineering, SET, 
-    Second prize: Team “K28KTR” from class K28KTR, Architecture program, DTU Faculty of Architecture, SET, 
-    Third prize: Team “K29CSU-KTR” from class K29CSU KTR, CSU-standard Architecture program, DTU Faculty of International Education (IS), 
-    Most Beautiful Bridge Award: Team “NEW BRIDGE” from class K30XDD1, Civil and Industrial Construction, DTU Faculty of Civil Engineering, 
-    Heavy Load Bridge Award: Team “TIGER” from class K28CSU XDD, CSU-standard Civil and Industrial Construction, DTU Faculty of International Education (IS), 
-    Most Accurate Prediction Award: Team “F4 OVERLOAD” from class K28XDD2, Civil and Industrial Construction, Faculty of Civil Engineering, SET, DTU 

 

Organizers present First prize to team “BUILD BRIDGES - BUILD SUCCESS” from DTU 

 

High School Division:

-    First prize: Team “FUSION” from Nguyen Thuong Hien High School and Lien Chieu High School
-    Second prize: Team “BLACK-HAIRED KIDS” from Pham Phu Thu High School
-    Third prize: Team “FOUR DUCKS” from Thai Phien High School and Tran Phu High School
-    Consolation prizes: Team “3 CATERPILLARS”, Team “NOTHING” from Tran Phu High School, and Team “TEAM 22” from Vo Chi Cong High School

 

Organizers present First prize to team “FUSION” from Nguyen Thuong Hien and Lien Chieu High Schools

 

Hoang Thanh Dat, a second-year student in class K29XDQ, majoring in Construction Management Technology and a member of the winning team “BUILD BRIDGES - BUILD SUCCESS”, shared: “Winning First Prize in such a large-scale competition is a great honor and joy for us. Our team applied the knowledge we’ve learned - especially in stress analysis and truss structures - to design a bridge model that excels both in aesthetics and load capacity. I will continue to learn and sharpen my skills to join more academic competitions like this and gradually realize my dream of building meaningful structures in the future.”

 

A Competition that continues to attract student participation over the years

 

According to the Organizing Committee, this year’s competition featured many uniquely designed bridges with aesthetic shapes, balanced proportions, and strong real-world applicability. Notably, the teams - comprising both university and high school students - calculated their structures scientifically to ensure excellent load-bearing capabilities while minimizing the gap between predicted and actual loads.

 

(Media Center)