OCNews

The return of the heavyweight competition at OUC’s 21st annual Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest resulted in a contest record.

A bridge built by Matyas Kutyik of Budapest Politechnic held a recordbreaking 256.13 kg load before succumbing to the pressure. That feat breaks the old heavyweight record set in 2000 by Bob Williams of Clyde, Alberta, whose bridge held just over180 kg. Kutyik took first prize of $1,500.

“The rules have changed since we last held the heavyweight competition,” says Dr. Andrew Hay, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Technologies. “But this is still an incredible feat.”

The event, held at the North Kelowna Recreation Centre today, was host to nearly 200 competitors in the Huber Mackenzie Turik Heavyweight Competition, individual post-secondary and secondary school categories, as well as the timed team-building category. Nine elementary schools brought replicas of the Kettle Valley Railroad trestles for the demonstration category.

While the number of participants was up in all categories, it was the heavyweights that drew international interest as students from Iran, Hungary and The Netherlands set out to do battle against local middle school, secondary school and post-secondary students.

Second place ($1,000) went to Hamideh Abolghasemi Riseh of Tehran University. His bridge held a load of 19.17 kg. And, third place was awarded to Richard Halley, an OUC student at the Salmon Arm Campus, for his bridge that held a load of 15.84 kg.

Each of the bridges had to meet certain criteria including weighing no more than 1,000 grams. A number of bridges had to be disqualified, including the one built by the Dutch team from Delft University, because they did not meet contest specifications.

In the Post-Secondary and Secondary Team Building Categories, students were given two-and-one-half hours to build a bridge design that could hold a designated weight – two kg for post-secondary and one kg for secondary students – for five minutes. The team with the lightest bridge to withstand the load won. OUC Engineering Technology students took the top three spots in the post-secondary category. Jason Sandberg, Eric Miller, Dylan Wilson, and Mark Woodward took first place with a bridge that weighed 54.91 grams. Second place was awarded to Calvin Link, Denis Haggard, Jesse Vidler and Dana Graves for their bridge that weighed 87.72 grams. And third place went to Nilton Praticante, Antonio Cianci, Colin Bakker, and Steven Robertson for their bridge of 112.38 grams.

In the Secondary Team Building Competition first place went to a team from KLO Middle School: Jake Seguine, Shale Yeske, John Kohout and Jordan McDivitt built a bridge that weighed 73 grams. Second place was awarded to Mike Hurczak, Julie-Ann Hansen, Sean Helgerson, and Cass Werstuik of Mount Boucherie Secondary for their bridge of 95.37 grams. And there was a tie for third place with two bridges weighing 104.27 grams each. One, from Mount Boucherie Secondary, was built by Runyo Anderson, Kyle O’Neill, Calvin Jean and Mark Staaf. The other team to place was from Gold River Secondary School students George White, Matt McLean, Tiffany Cunha and Chelsea Marshall.

In the individual competitions, post-secondary and secondary school students constructed a bridge at home and brought it to the competition to undergo the load test. The lightest bridges that withstood a two kg load for five minutes were declared the winners. In the secondary school category they are: 1st: Jake Seguin, KLO Middle School (235.7 g); 2nd: Kyle Bueckert, KLO Middle School; (253.9 g) 3rd: Mike Hurcak, Mount Boucherie Secondary; (302.5 g) 4th: Colten Brummet, KLO Middle School; (313.9 g) 5th: John Kohout, KLO Middle School (335.17 g).

In the post-secondary category they are: 1st: Mojtaba Heidari Moaf, Tehran University;(121.4 g) 2nd: Pouya Banibayat, Tehran University (129.3); 3rd: Matyas Kutyik, Budapest Polytechnic (130.5 g); 4th: Andras Koves, Budapest Polytechnic (139.0 g); 5th: Ryan Hayward, OUC Salmon Arm Campus (359.0 g).