OCNews

The HMA Architects Heavy Weight champion at OUC’s 22nd Annual Spaghetti Bridge Contest managed to break his own record today when his bridge weighing less than 1000 grams held a load of 257.33 kg.

Andras Koves, a student from the Budapest Polytechnic, had a few tense moments when the Fettucine Faultine (the hydraulically operated load apparatus used to test the heavy weight bridges) broke down while his bridge was being tested with a reading of just over 200 kg. But, with a room full of engineers, they had it fixed in no time and Koves’ bridge managed to surpass the record he and partner Matyas Kutyik of Budapest Polytechnic set last year of 256.13 kg.

That feat earned him first prize of $1,500.

“It’s amazing that he was able to surpass his own record,” says Peter Murray, one of the contest organizers. “Every year, the designs get more complex, are lighter and are able to withstand more.”

The event, held at the North Kelowna Recreation Centre today, was host to nearly 200 competitors in the HMA Heavy Weight Competition, individual post-secondary and secondary school categories, as well as the timed team-building category. Eight elementary schools brought replicas of the Okanagan Lake floating bridge for the demonstration category which were examined by guest judge Kelowna-Mission MLA Sindi Hawkins.

While the number of participants was up in all categories, it was the heavyweights that drew international interest. Joining Koves and his teammates from Hungary were students from Iran, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic doing battle against local middle school, secondary school and postsecondary students.

Second place ($1,000) went to OUC engineering technology student Mark Woodward. His bridge held a load of 229.96 kg. Third place was awarded to Hungarian student Balazs Miovacz, for his bridge that held a load of 88.69 kg. Bastiaan Naber and Eelco de Groot, from Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), took fourth place with a bridge that carried a load of 77.86 kg. before breaking. And, Solmaz Karami Komkar of the Amir Kabir University of Technology in Iran, was fifth with a bridge that withstood a load of 75.50 kg.

Each of the bridges had to meet certain criteria including weighing no more than 1,000 grams. One bridge, built by the Hungarian team, had to be disqualified because it did not meet contest specifications.

In the Post-Secondary and Secondary Team Building Categories, students were given two 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 Jason Sandberg and Mark Woodward took first place in the postsecondary category with a bridge that weighed 41.4 grams. They managed to beat their own record of last year by over 10 grams when they were part of an OUC team that took first place. Second place was awarded to Ebrahim Parvaresh Karan, Mohamad Saberi, Sara Farzin, and Somaz Kamkar of Amir Kabir University for their bridge that weighed 60.2 grams. And third place went to OUC students Brent Livingstone, Nilton Practicante, Matt Arruda and Antonio Cianci for their bridge of 75.9 grams.

In the Secondary Team Building Competition first place went to a team from the Glenfir School: Liam O’Sulliuvan, Kelly Heinz, Foster Hodgins, and Graham Collingwood built a bridge that weighed 60.4 grams. Second place was awarded to Ricky McLain, Court DeWitt, Sean St. Amand and Josh Stoski of Eagle River Secondary School for their bridge of 93.7 grams. And third place was awarded to the team from W.L. Seaton Secondary of Vincent Cao, Jeff Lim, Jenny Lim, and Jaspal Dhaliwal for a bridge that weighed 99.1 grams.

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: Trent Jensen, Eagle River Secondary (206.3 g); 2nd: Kaitlin Desilets, KLO Middle School (211.4 g); 3rd: Jesse Scrimbit, Eagle River Secondary (236.5 g) 4th: Rajveer Singh Dhillon, Osoyoos Secondary School (240.1 g) 5th: Willie Richens, Osoyoos Secondary School (264.4 g).

In the post-secondary category they are: 1st: Andras Koves, Budapest Polytechnic (94.8 g) 2nd: Balazs Milovacz, Budapest Polytechnic (113.6 g); 3rd: Mark Woodward, OUC (117.2 g); 4th: Ebrahim Parvaresh Karan, Amir Kabir University of Technology (122.1 g) 5th: Jitka Pucandlova, Technical University of Liberec (125.2 g).