The Grainger College of Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering

Student steel bridge team competes at Nationals

8/25/2022

The UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team placed in the top 15 schools overall in the 2022 national Student Steel Bridge Competition, which was held over Memorial Day weekend.

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Left to right: UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team members Ryan Hammond, Dan Zhuravel, Matt Groll (BS 22, captain), Konstantin Kotelnikov, and Matt Ross with their bridge and Faculty Adviser Professor Jim LaFave (BS 86, MS 87) at the national SSBC.
Left to right: UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team members Ryan Hammond, Dan Zhuravel, Matt Groll (BS 22, captain), Konstantin Kotelnikov, and Matt Ross with their bridge and Faculty Adviser professor Jim LaFave (BS 86, MS 87) at the national SSBC.

The UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team competed in the 2022 national Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC), which was held over Memorial Day weekend at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va.  This came after the team’s successful showing at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2022 Western Great Lakes Regional Student Symposium, hosted by the UIUC student chapter of ASCE in April, which qualified them for the national competition.

The 2022 SSBC, which was also sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), involved designing, fabricating and constructing, as well as lateral and vertical load testing, of 20-foot long (approximately one-tenth scale) structural steel bridges representing a wildlife crossing over an interstate highway.  Overall judging was based on construction speed, weight, deflections, efficiency, economy and even aesthetics.  

The SSBC road to Blacksburg began with 139 college and university teams competing in 20 regional competitions. Only 34 of them qualified for the national competition, which saw the UIUC squad finish in the top 15 schools overall for the first time in recent memory. 

More SSBC coverage: UIUC hosted the national SSBC in 2018. 

Timed bridge construction by the UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team at the national competition.
Timed bridge construction by the UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team at the national competition.
The UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team load-tests their bridge at the national SSBC under the watchful eyes of AISC Director of Education Christina Harber (BS 02) and Virginia Tech Prof. Matt Eatherton (PhD 2010, kneeling).
The UIUC Student Steel Bridge Team load-tests their bridge at the national SSBC under the watchful eyes of AISC Director of Education Christina Harber (BS 02) and Virginia Tech Prof. Matt Eatherton (PhD 2010, kneeling).

 

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This story was published August 25, 2022.