PORT ANGELES — Six Port Angeles High School seniors representing three bridge-building teams earned second, third and fourth place at a statewide civil engineering contest.
The students, each with plans to pursue an engineering major, represented the Roughriders at the Seattle American Society of Civil Engineers’ 20th annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition on Saturday at the at the Museum of Flight in south Seattle.
Five bridges from the high school were taken to the competition, while three were selected to be the school’s official entries in the contest, said Gene Unger, a mentor for the engineering club.
There were 31 total bridges entered in the contest, he said.
“All of our bridges finished in the top half,” he said, including the school’s two nonofficial entries.
Each bridge was judged by a team of engineers for aesthetic value, then tested for overall strength.
Awards were given for the top three overall scores. Of the bridges that remained, awards were given for the top three strongest and most aesthetic bridges.
555 pounds
The bridge built by Jessica Zhu held 555 pounds per square inch, placed second overall and earned her a $500 scholarship from a consortium of Port Angeles engineering firms.
Zhu earned a third-place finish in 2014, and her 2013 bridge was third strongest in the state but was not officially entered in the contest.
For her three top finishes, she has earned a total of $1,200 in local scholarships.
When Zhu entered the contest in 2013, she planned to go into the medical field, but her experience has left her open to exploring the idea of becoming an engineer, she said.
“When I went to the competitions in Seattle, they told me I would fit in well in engineering,” she said.
She has applied to the Bothell nursing school and the Seattle engineering school at the University of Washington, and expects to learn whether she was accepted to the schools in late March.
If she is accepted to both schools, she will make a decision on a major at that time, she said.
The team of Simon Shindler, Luciano Toscano and Jorge Pasamar built a bridge that held 314 pounds per square inch, which earned a third-place overall score.
All three seniors plan to study engineering and are awaiting college acceptance letters.
The trio estimated they each spent at least 24 hours designing and building their bridge, including more than an hour just sanding down its deck.
They were each awarded $300 scholarships.
James Gallagher’s and Peter Butler’s bridge held 347 pounds — the third strongest bridge in the state — but had a lower aesthetics score and earned overall fourth place, as well as first place in the strongest bridge category.
“Designing it was the best part,” Butler said.
Gallagher and Butler, like the other seniors, are awaiting decisions from engineering colleges.
Each received a $200 scholarship.
Scholarship consortium
The engineering scholarship consortium includes Zenovic & Associates, Gene Unger Engineering and Northwest Territories Inc.
Each of the firms, Clallam County and the Port of Port Angeles provide volunteer engineering mentors to teach the students the basics of bridge engineering.
The engineers remain available to students as mentors after the contest and offer job shadowing and other help to students after the contest, said Joe Donisi, associate county engineer.
Port Angeles High physics teacher Derek Johnson is the adviser for the student engineering team.
In November, 40 students signed up to build a bridge, and 13 individuals carried through, Johnson said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
