The American Society of Civil Engineers Hawaii Section Younger Member Forum (ASCE YMF) together with the ASCE Hawaii Section sponsored the first West Point Bridge Design Competition (WPBDC) in Hawaii this year.  The WPBDC is an internet based bridge design competition that was created by the West Point Military Academy and ASCE National in 2001 as part of ASCE’s 150th Anniversary celebration.  The contest is designed to promote math, science and engineering to students in grades seven through twelve.  Students download the WPBDC software to design a bridge on their computer at home or at school.  Students then work alone or in teams of two to design a bridge that can meet a load test and be the most economical.  When the student finishes their initial bridge design, the WPBDC software puts the bridge design through a load test.  If the design passes the load test, students can either upload the bridge design to the WPBDC website or optimize the bridge design to bring the bridge cost down.  When the student finally uploads the design to the WPBDC website, the bridge is validated and judged based on the construction cost estimate for the bridge. 

    There are no fees to enter the contest and students may enter as many bridge designs as they like.  The contest is broken up into a qualifying round, a semi-final round and a final round.   The qualifying round is also the round used for local competition.  During the qualifying round, students are allowed to collaborate with their teachers and engineers in the community to optimize their bridge designs.  Teams with the top designs from within different regions of the country are selected to continue to the semi-final round.  Winners from the semi-final round go to the final round of competition held on May 16, 2006 at the West Point Military Academy in New York to compete for $10,000 in scholarship monies.   During the semi-final and final rounds, students must work on their bridge designs alone.

    This year as part of an outreach activity for the ASCE Hawaii Section YMF and ASCE Hawaii Section, it was decided to start a local competition in Hawaii that was opened up to all students attending public high schools on the island of Oahu.  Four schools responded with interest to participate, Farrington High School, McKinley High School, Roosevelt High School and Pearl City High School.   The contest was held during the 2006 WPBDC qualifying round from January 25th – March 22nd 2006.  A local scoreboard was set up with WPBDC organizers so that students could see their standings in the Hawaii competition.  Engineers from the ASCE Hawaii Section YMF and Hawaii Section visited classes at the participating schools to talk about bridge design, the contest, and to expose the students to Civil Engineering.  The engineers also made themselves available to students during the bridge competition if the students had any questions about bridge design.  This year, a total of 62 students submitted 39 bridge designs in Hawaii.   Students competed for prizes for the best design overall and best design in their respective schools. 

    This year’s overall bridge design winners were as follows: First Place Overall, Benjie Batangan, Farrington High School; Second Place Overall, Nguyen M. Ngo, Farrington High School; Third Place Overall, Ephraim E. Vita, Farrington High School.  The school winners were as follows: Farrington High School, Benjie Batangan; McKinley High School, John Paik and Jonathan Odo; Pearl City High School, Jaren Shigeta and Kelsey Tsuneda; Roosevelt High School, Tyrus Lum and Talin Sokugawa.  The overall winners received plaques and gift certificates for the Ala Moana Shopping Center.  The school winners received movie ticket packages for Consolidated Theaters and the teachers received gift certificates for Office Depot. All of the winners and teachers were recognized during the monthly ASCE Hawaii Section Dinner Meeting held on April 20, 2006 at the Treetops Restaurant. 

    While none of the teams from Hawaii this year made it to the semi-final round of the competition, students and teachers who participated enjoyed the contest and have indicated an interest in participating in next year’s contest.  The ASCE Hawaii Section plans to continue the contest again in 2007 if national contest organizers continue to offer the contest as an outreach tool.   For more information on the WPBDC, please visit http://bridgecontest.usma.edu.  The ASCE YMF and ASCE Hawaii Section would like to thank the following people who served on this year’s committee for organizing and helping with the local WPBDC: Paulette Ujimori (chair), Greg Arakaki, Randy Akiona, Brian Enomoto, Ron Iwamoto, Nelson Pascua, Jon Young, Joy Wasai, Stuart Ujimori, and Mike Hanneman.  If you are interested in helping in next year’s competition, please contact Mr. Greg Arakaki of the ASCE Hawaii Section Outreach Committee at garakaki@ascehawaii.org. 

WPBDC School Winners (Left to Right):  Talin Sokugawa (Roosevelt High School), Tyrus Lum (Roosevelt High School) Benjie Batangan (Farrington High School),Nguyen Ngo (Farrington High School), Jahn Paik (McKinley High School), and Johnathan Odo (McKinley High School)
 
 
 
 

Overall WPBDC Winners with their teacher, Bebi Davis and WPBDC Chair Paulette Ujimori. Pictured Left to Right: Nguyen Ngo (Second Place), Bebi Davis (Farrington High School Teacher), Paulette Ujimori (WPBDC Chair), and Benjie Batangan (First Place)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ASCE Hawaii Section YMF Member Brian Enomoto speaks to McKinley High School Students about bridge design in preparation for the WPBDC.