OCNews

OUC’s 20th Annual Spaghetti Bridge Contest crowned winners from among OUC students, local high school students and international visitors who came to Canada especially for the contest today.

More than 200 students participated in the individual and team competitions held at the North Kelowna Campus as part of the Open House and Research Expo March 7 and 8. About 70 students from area middle and high schools brought in bridges they had built at home to be judged. There were seven post-secondary entries including five from students from Hungary and The Netherlands.

The bridges were weighed and then put to the stability test to see if they could withstand a two-kilogram weight for five minutes. The lightest bridges that did not break under the pressure took away the prize money.

The winners of the individual student competition for secondary schools include: Brent Parker of Eagle River, Sicamous took first place; Jason Airey of Eagle River Secondary, Sicamous, tied for second place with Kayla Thorald of KLO Middle School; and Giles Bagley of Similkamen Secondary, Cawston took third place. Rolf Dreiger of KLO Middle School came in fourth place while Shane Riley of Eagle River Secondary took fifth place.

The post secondary individual student competition had an internatinal flavour with Norbert Groz of Budapest Technical College, Hungary taking first place, his fellow student Balazs Bokonyszegi won second place and Simon Visser of the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands, came away with third place. His fellow student, Jerry Gaarthuis came in fourth, while Darren Calhoun, an OUC Faculty of Engineering Technologies student came in fifth.

This year’s team competition had a slight twist, as students were asked to build towers instead of bridges during the timed contest. Teams were given a set of specifications, a certain amount of pasta and two-and-a-half hours to build a tower that would then be placed on a platform and weighted for one minute. The bridge that does not break under the pressure and weighs the least amount wins.

Students from OUC took away first place in the post secondary team competition. Dave Seaton, Brett Galrand, Kyle Reese and Josh Hisler, all civil engineering students, took first place with a bridge that only weighed 304.8 grams. Second place went to a group of of OUC and Budapest Technical College students including Norbert Groz, Balazs Bokonyszegi, Cameron Young and Adam Sneddon. Another OUC team made up of Richard Gostlin, Tim Stroud, Stephen Shoihet and Josh Kehler were the third place winners. Delft Technical University students Marc Bijvoet, Simon Visser, and Jerry Gaarthuis were joined by OUC student Kandis Pohl to build the tower that won fourth place. And OUC civil engineering students Calvin Link, Dana Graves and Jesse Vidler took fifth place.

The students from Budapest Technical College thrilled the audience with a bridge from home that was put to the extreme weight test. The bridge, which only weighed 750 grams, withstood a weight of more than 234 pounds before breaking.

A number of  elementary schools also brought in pre-built bridges for demonstration.

Sponsors of the contest included: OUC, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geo-Scientists of B.C. (APEG); Foundation for Education and Advancement in Technology, The OUC Faculty Association, the OUC Students’ Association, Earth Tech, Northside Industries Inc., West Manufacturing Ltd., Monashee Manufacturing Corporation Ltd., ASDAC CNC Machining Ltd., Whitewater Specialities Ltd., Air Liquide, Okanagan Precision Machine Ltd., Multi-Power Products Ltd., and Kelowna Steel Fabricators Ltd.