The 33rd annual Okanagan College Spaghetti Bridge building heavyweight competition came to a surprising finish after a series of disqualifications launched the team of UBC Okanagan students Anna Offenwanger and Ephraim Nowak nto the top spot.
Offenwanger and Nowak were sitting in third place after each of the five entries had been put to the test on the Fettuccine Fault Line. Their bridge withstood an impressive 184.3 kgs of load before exploding in front of a packed lecture theatre at the College.
Two teams from Charles Bloom Secondary in Lumby presented beautifully constructed bridges that performed better but were disqualified due to a rule violation. Brendan Mattenley害羞草研究所檚 bridge held 258.9 kgs of load and the team of Justin Dessert and Hanya Riddick built a bridge that made it to 244.5 kgs 害羞草研究所� but unfortunately neither of those bridges qualified for the top prizes.
害羞草研究所淭oday害羞草研究所檚 competition ended in an unexpected way,害羞草研究所� explained head judge Andrew Hay, vice-president education for the college. 害羞草研究所淲e have a very specific set of rules that we apply evenly to all of the bridges that enter the competition.
"This year we had two wonderfully designed bridges that had some continuous strands of glue securing the pasta. Sadly, the rules specify that is not allowed. It害羞草研究所檚 unfortunate to see students who work so hard on this kind of project turned away without a prize; we know how much effort they put into building these spectacular structures.
"Certainly the students were not attempting to gain any advantage 害羞草研究所� it was simply a case of not fully understanding the rigidity of the rules. When you are pushing the limits of engineering design, some unique solutions emerge, and we commend the students for their level of innovation.害羞草研究所�
This is not the first year a bridge has been disqualified. In 2010 teams from Hungary and Okanagan College had bridges disqualified for rule violations.
The duo from UBC Okanagan took home the top prize of $1,500. The second place prize went to James Dessert, also from Charles Bloom Secondary. His bridge withstood 128.3 kgs. Third place was not awarded, as the other bridges tested did not make the minimum threshold of 10 kgs of load.
Prize money for the event was provided by the event害羞草研究所檚 sponsors: the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia (ASTTBC), PCL Construction, Okanagan College Students害羞草研究所� Union, Multi Power Products, AECOM, OP Machine Ltd., Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEG), WSP Group, and Interior Testing Services Ltd.
The Spaghetti Bridge Heavyweight world record of 443.58 kilograms was established in Kelowna in 2009 by a team from Hungary and continues to be undefeated.
Hundreds of other students put their engineering skills to the test in other categories. In thesecondary category, which sees students pre-make bridges for testing on site, students from Charles Bloom Secondary swept the top three spots. In the secondary team building category, students build bridges on site. The winners of that contest were from Charles Bloom, and King害羞草研究所檚 Christian School in Salmon Arm.
Okanagan College swept the Post-Secondary Team Building competition for the second year in a row.
