Charleston, WV (WOAY) – The West Virginia Department of Transportation has announced the winners of an annual student bridge building and design contest.
The contest was held Saturday in Beckley at WVU Tech with 41 teams from middle and high schools across the state. Students were divided into teams for two competitions designing bridges using software and balsawood to construct them.
“The purpose of this competition is to introduce West Virginia’s students to the field of engineering and let them know there are good jobs available in our state,” said Jennifer Dooley, WVDOT Public Relations Division Director. “WVDOT is always hiring engineers, technicians, and bridge inspectors as well as a wide variety of career types.”
Eastern Greenbrier Middle School swept the competition taking the top three spots in the Balsa Wood competition, with Arabella Webb taking first place, Emma Vincent and Ellie Burns finishing second and Jayce Bush and Brysan Hamrick taking third.
In the High School Division, Princeton Senior’s Aiden Miller claimed the top prize followed by Ethan Coleman and Parker Worline (Putnam Career and Technical Center) in second place and Larry Du and Maxwell Chen (Morgantown High School) came in third place.
Du and Chen came out on top in the software competition’s high school division designing the lowest-cost bridge in the high school division and Emma Vincent and Ellie Burns following suit in the middle school competition.
Behind them, James Ludig (Oak Hill High School) and Rebecca Chen and Emily Gu (Suncrest Middle School) finished second and Connor Atkins and Lucas Messenger (East Fairmont High School) and Laura Du and Riya Zinn (Suncrest Middle School) came in third.
