NJIT Steel Bridge Team

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.

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, on Saturday April 4, 2009; and the national competition will be hosted at University of Nevada in 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

2010 National Competition (at Purdue University)^[1]

• Nineteenth Place Overall

2010 Regional Competition^[2] (Regional competition score-sheet)

• First Place Overall (first place all categories including Construction speed, Lightness, Stiffness, Construction economy,Structural efficiency and Display)

2009 National Competition (at University of Nevada at Las Vegas)^[3]

• Twenty-Fourth Place Overall

2009 Regional Competition^[4] (Regional competition score-sheet)

• First Place Overall
• First Place Efficieny
• First Place Stiffness

2008 National Competition (at University of Florida)^[5]

• Nineteenth Place Overall ($3.390 Million)
• Twenty-fourth Place Efficiency ($1.327 Million)
• Sixteenth Place Economy ($2.062 Million)
• Twenty-sixth Place Stiffness (0.75” Aggregate Deflection)
• Twenty-second Place Aesthetics
• Twenty-fifth Place Lightness (267.6 lbs)
• Nineteenth Place Construction Speed (7.85 mins including Penalties)
• In a field of 42 Teams

2008 Regional Competition

• First Place Overall
• Second Place Efficiency
• First Place Economy
• Second Place Lightness
• First Place Construction Speed
• Second Place Stiffness

2007 National Competition 2007 Regional Competition

• First Place Overall
• First Place Efficiency
• First Place Economy
• First Place Lightness
• First Place Construction Speed

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

Corporate Partners

• SCHIAVONE - Constructors & Engineers
• Acrow Bridges

Corporate Sponsors

• Weiss-aug
• EECRUZ
• Hardesty & Hanover
• Lapatka Associates, Inc.
• Bloomfield Mason Supply
• Chalet Construction Corp
• S.Seltzer Construction Corp.

Previous Sponsors

• Acrow Bridges
• EECRUZ
• Local No. 11
• Parsons Brinckerhoff
• ASCE North Jersey Branch
• CIAP of NJ
• The Conti Group
• Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
• Braemar Homes, L.L.C.
• Conklin Associates
• Greenberg Farrow
• Moretrench
• Northeast Remsco Construction
• Tishman
• Kelly Engineering
• S.Seltzer Construction Corp.
• Suburban Consulting Engineers INC.

External links

• 'NJIT Steel Bridge Team'
• 'ASCE/AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition 2011 Competition Guide'

References

1. ^ http://www.nssbc.info/History/2010NSSBCResults.pdf '2010 ASCE/AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition Category Ranking Sheet'
2. ^ http://www.njit.edu/news/2010/2010-172.php 'NJIT: NJIT Steel Bridge Team Takes First Place for Fifth Straight Year'
3. ^ http://www.nssbc.info/History/2009NSSBCResults.pdf '2009 ASCE/AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition Category Ranking Sheet'
4. ^ http://www.njit.edu/features/sceneandheard/steelbridge-2009.php 'NJIT : A Bridge to Somewhere – the Nationals: NJIT Steel Bridge Team Takes First Place in Regional Contest'
5. ^ http://www.nssbc.info/History/2008NSSBCResults.pdf 'http://www.nssbc.info/History/2008NSSBCResults.pdf'