AESTHETICALLY THE BEST: Wong, Chow, Lam, Tsang and Chai proudly pose with their arch model-bridge.
MIRI: Teamwork and strong theoretical knowledge paid off for students from Curtin University, Sarawak (Curtin Sarawak) when their team came in third at the recent Asia Pacific Universities Build and Break (APUBB) Competition 2011.
The competition, a structural design competition for civil engineering students in the Asia Pacific region, was jointly organised by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Malaysia and Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) and supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.
It aimed to nurture creativity in structural design amongst civil engineering students and encouraged them to put the knowledge and theories they had learned into practice.
A total of 53 teams from Malaysia and neighbouring countries took part in the one-day event held at Uniten campus.
Each team was required to construct a model bridge using satay sticks, cotton string and masking tape.
Their bridges had to have a minimum 0.8 metre span and had to be able to carry a load of up to one kilogramme.
Judging was based on the bridge’s structural viability and efficiency (ratio of span with load to the weight of the model).
The bridge that achieved the stipulated load but had the lowest self-weight was awarded the highest points.
Curtin Sarawak was represented by second and third-year Civil and Construction Engineering students Chai Kah Seng, Raymond Chow Han Seng, Lam Ka Kitt, Tsang Kwan Yeon and Wong Siaw Jye.
The team, under the supervision of civil and construction engineering lecturer Brabha Hari Nagaratnam, designed and constructed an arch bridge spanning 1.38 metres that successfully carried the stipulated load.
Brabha commented that the team’s arch bridge model was aesthetically one of the best; very stable and could carry and distribute the load properly without failure.
She also acknowledged the students’ creativity and efficiency in using the given materials.
The Civil and Construction Engineering programme offered at Curtin Sarawak is a four-year honours programme fully accredited by the
Board of Engineers Malaysia and Engineers Australia, the governing professional engineering body of Australia.
The programme has experienced significant growth since its inception and over 40 students have graduated from it.