Week 1 Bridge Reflection

After extensive group work throughout the week we prepared our bridge for competition.  The competition was broken up into various parts: Inspection & Piece Count, Timed Assembly, Measurement & Weight,  and Weighted Test Trials.  Our results were as follows.  Total piece count was under the 400 piece limit.  The way we chose to assemble our bridge on the platform given was not as fast as we had anticipated, and our group was one of the slowest assemblies out of the entire class.  The bridge met the height requirements with ease, weighed about 900 grams, and all of our per-fabricated pieces were legal for use in competition.  When it came time for actual testing, our bridge, to our surprise, did hold the weight like we had tested previously (Bridge we tested held close to 30 lbs).  The method used by the instructors to implement the weight on the bridge differed from our own method which ended up with very different results.  Originally we tested the bridge with a wooden plank with the weights on top, thus evenly distributing the weight along the bridge.  The instructors' method consisted of a piece of cardboard with disk weights placed on top.  This method concentrated all the weight onto the middle of the bridge, which was technically the weakest point.  After this "failure," we decided to make some necessary modifications to further optimize our bridge.  Our bridge was retested at the end of class and was able to hold the 20 lbs successfully.

For the second round of competition, our bridge will be more efficient all around.  We are using our experience in the first round along with visual analysis software to minimize the amount of stress placed on each point in the bridge in hopes to maximize efficiency.  Out of this experience our group learned many new things.  First we learned that just because we tested our bridge one specific way doesn't mean that that is how the instructors would carry out the testing.  In a real life application, a bridge is put through serious testing before actual construction because if a bridge were to fail for any reason there would be dire consequences. A functional bridge simply cannot fail. Second, we learned that incorporating different combinations of connections can seriously alter the cost of the bridge. In the second round of competition, we plan to focus on minimizing cost while maximizing strength. Finally, we learned how to better our teamwork skills by implementing each others' specific strengths into the various aspects of our bridge.  Hooray for teamwork :) Peace, Love, Engineering <3

Sincerely,

Rikki & Katy