"When unforeseen events arise, don't get discouraged and face it as a team. All work can be done with dedication and support from everyone." Juan Carlos Gándara, ICA student
ZAPOPAN, Jalisco; April 19, 2023. The students of Civil Engineering and Administration from the Universidad Panamericana Campus Guadalajara won for the first time first place in the aesthetics category and fourth place overall in the International Steel Bridge Competition organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Society for Steel Construction (AISC).
International Bridge Competition
This year, the International Bridge Competition consisted of the design, fabrication and construction of a scaled steel bridge to hypothetically serve as a crossing at the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. The students had been preparing since September, starting with the design of the bridge, which was to support 2,500 pounds.
The mission of the Student Steel Bridge Competition is to challenge students to extend their knowledge from the theoretical to the practical, thus fostering the growth of their interpersonal and professional skills, innovation, and relationships between students and industry professionals. The competition was held April 12-15 in Amarillo, Texas, where 18 universities, fourteen American and four Mexican, participated.
Pan American Group
The Pan American group in the International Bridge Competition was made up of 16 students, led by their official elevator, Dr. Héctor Gabriel Dávalos Alejo. They were accompanied on the trip by their career director, Mr. Luis Ángel Amezcua Eccius, and Ms. Paulina González Ayala.
The general category is made up of different subcategories: Aesthetics, evaluates the balance, proportion and elegance of the bridge; Speed of construction, which takes into account the construction time in a previously delimited area, this year they obtained the second place; Lightness, Rigidity, Economy of construction, consists of an equation in which the construction time, the number of builders and penalties are involved to thus yield a monetary value, the bridge with the lowest monetary cost wins this category; Cost estimation, prior to the start of activities the team must submit a sheet with their cost estimates for their bridge, at the end of the competition the data submitted by the team are compared with those that actually happened, and Structural efficiency.
The Universidad Panamericana Campus Guadalajara congratulates the team of the International Bridge Competition, for putting the name of the institution on high and is proud of the effort and dedication of its students, which is reflected in this international achievement. Events like this are a support for students to experience and put into practice everything they have learned in the classroom.
