PORTLAND, Ore. — A high school student from Portland has won an international bridge-building contest.
Students from across the nation — and the world — tested their engineering skills Saturday at the annual contest, The Oregonian reported.
A machine from Beaverton company Vernier put their wooden bridge models to the test.
Their bridge designs varied in capability and style, some built up to a triangular point and others in intricate rectangles. Each student had to be one of the top two in a regional competition to make it to the event.
Students from Portland’s Riverdale High School have won three of the past six international events. Two seniors, Tal Volk and Brendan Corcoran, represented the Portland school this year.
The trickiest part of the competition? For Volk, it wasn’t nerves or settling on the right design.
“All the glue on your fingers,” he said. “The glue doesn’t come off your fingers for a while. I had to turn off the thumb print scanner on my phone.”
Riverdale physics teacher Mark Wechter volunteered to host the event in Portland. A group of students got involved, talked to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry about donating the space and found other sponsors.
“We really felt as though the competition had been so good to us, that we wanted to give back,” said event coordinator Jill Hall, who is the college adviser at Riverdale.
After the results came in, Corcoran was pleased to come in No. 1, with one of the day’s lightest bridges. Volk came in fifth place.
After the contest, Corcoran wasn’t finished thinking about his bridge.
“It didn’t break where I expected,” he said. “They never do.”
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