Popsicle Bridge Contest Held at Mason

By Broadside Staff Writer Mrinalini Ramanan
Photo by Broadside News Editor Asma Chaudhary

The Society of American Military Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers passed the task of creating bridges on to high school students. Their only building material was seemingly ordinary Popsicle sticks. The rules are that each team of no more than three students has to design a bridge that is aesthetically pleasing, but more importantly, can also withstand weight.

This year, 15 high school teams came out to compete in the annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Contest on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at George Mason University’s Science & Technology Building II.

The winner of last year’s contest was Tom Kane of McLean High School, who informed the high school’s engineering club about the contest. Sukriti Thapa, Meryem Ok and Linda Kim are freshmen and part of the engineering club at McLean High School, and were excited to be part of the second annual contest. They explained that the bridge itself had to weigh less than 350 grams, but it took them 15 hours to make sure their bridge, named Larry, fit within the rules set by the thick packet they received from their technology teacher. The team says that “the hardest part was waiting for the glue to dry on Larry,” but advises future teams not to do it on the night before the competition.

T.C. Williams is another high school that participated in the contest with its two student team. Citina Getachew and Bilien Bekel were chosen to participate in the contest because they had made a bridge that withstood more than 50 pounds in one of their classroom projects.

Jesse Coleman, the main organizer of the event, explained what the device that he called the “Bridge Breaking Device” was and how it functioned. It was a two-tiered wooden structure with metal rods. Next to the table with the BBD were goggles and hard hats. A four-ton hydraulic jack was attached to the BBD device to test the “Ultimate Strength” of the participants’ bridges by measuring how much force their Popsicle bridges can withstand. Sangam Neupane, a senior Engineering student, explains that this is done through a meter on the top of the BBD.

One of the five judges, Professor Greg Hero, points out that this contest was not only to reach out to the community around the university, but to also get involved, high school students interested in both engineering and in Mason. The real estate and entrepreneurship professor also said that he “does not accept bribes,” and that this competition allows for intelligent minds to work through a problem and come up with an applicable solution.