UH Students Qualify for the 2006 AISC National Student Steel Bridge Competition

Left to Right: Brandon Weaver, Renee Ishisaka, Bryan Lum (captain), Brendon Hayashi, Kim Tanaka, and Travis Nishino

At this year’s Pacific Southwest Regional Conference at UCLA, our steel bridge team qualified to participate in the 2006 AISC National Student Steel Bridge Competition, which is to be held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on May 26-27. This is the first time that a University of Hawaii team has advanced to the national competition. The students qualified for the nationals by winning 3rd place overall in the regional competition. The bridge team consists of: bridge designer Bryan Lum and Renee Ishisaka, Kim Tanaka, Travis Nishino, Brendon Hayashi and Brandon Weaver. Congratulations to all!

Last year, forty-four teams out of over 250 from around the country participated in the national competition.  Our team is honored to be one of the teams qualifying to compete this year.  In the competition, bridges are judged in six categories: Construction Speed, Lightness, Aesthetics, Stiffness, Economy and Efficiency.  The teams compete for the top three positions in each of these categories, as well as for the top three overall scores.

The competition will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center and the meetings and banquet will be held at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center.  The competition schedule and additional information can be found at www.steelbridge2006.com.