PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College students in the Advanced Manufacturing and Composites Program will compete this week in the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering bridge building competition in Seattle.
The competition at the Seattle Convention Center, which begins today and runs through Thursday, offers monetary prizes as well as the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) Student Bridge Champion trophy.
The PC Bridge Building Team is made up of Andrew Martyanov, Keith Lesnick, Dustin Henning and Scott Ohman.
They are working with engineers at the Composite Recycling Technology Center (CRTC) in Port Angeles, and Marc Zeitlin with Burnside Aerospace.
Students made an I-beam bridge out of carbon fiber, and entered category A carbon fiber I-Beam.
The bridge weighs less than 1.5 pounds, and is expected to bear the weight of 9,000 pounds.
This is the first time the Peninsula College students will compete. Testing will be Wednesday, when along with students competing from all over the world, the Peninsula College students will see their bridge being load tested.
Since 1998, SAMPE has hosted a competition for student members to design, analyze and build a section of bridge to be tested at the annual International Spring SAMPE Convention.
In 2016, 73 teams from 24 universities and colleges participated.
The trip was funded by the Peninsula College Foundation.
