KLEW News Palouse Bureau Chief, Alex Crescenti shows us more.
Inside the comforts of the Kibbie Dome, students from all over the Pacific Northwest joined in for steel bridge competition. It is all part of the American Society of Civil Engineers National Competitions. Teams construct the bridges as fast as possible; then they test the sway and deflection of them.
"We learn about things in the classroom, but here we get to put it together, build it and see how it performs under real world conditions," said Sean IIams, U of I ASCE President.
Sean Iiams is the president of the University of Idaho's ASCE. This is his second year of the competition. What he likes, is the reality of scenarios.
"It's a stressful situation, but it's kind of preparation for the future where we all experience a lot of stressful situations in our jobs," said Iiams.
Another element to the competition...teamwork. With speed and efficiency being the keys to the competition, competitors must be able to work as a team to get the job done.
"The team has to work two halves of their team on each side of that river and they have to join that bridge up together, work together talk to each other and you know make it work," said Iiams.
For the best-of-the-best they will be moving onto nationals at BYU later this year.
Tomorrow (Saturday) the competition will feature the concrete canoe races. Competitors will put their canoes in the river and have them go through various spring and endurance tests.
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