ACLC Students Win First Place Engineering Award

Engineering Design & Graphics students from the Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) won first place for their bridge design in the prestigious Engineering Alliance for the Arts (EAA) competition held on April 26 in San Francisco, CA.  The winning entry, titled “Soaring High” by Winnie Zhou, Megan Lam, Sandy Evsanaa, Henry Zhu and Zobeir Hamid, was a cable-stayed bridge with counter-balanced support towers and an S-curved deck (see photo).  The judges praised it for its simple elegance, strength and beautiful design.

“Bridges are a big deal in the Bay Area and the EAA celebrates this with their annual bridge design competition for high schools throughout region,” said Carlton Grizzle, engineering and math facilitator (teacher) at ACLC. “This competition stresses the important fusion between engineering and art.  The kids love it because it’s a great opportunity to combine creativity with a technical subject.”

The EAA Student Impact Project brings structural engineers and design professionals into the classroom to teach and engage students in the design and construction of original to-scale model bridges with structural integrity.  They must use rudimentary materials like foamboard, string, elastic cord, pins, glue, ping pong balls and construction paper. 

The annual Award event is the culmination of this ten-week program.  Student teams compete to win a “design contract” by designing and building a bridge, writing an essay describing their bridge and the design experience, and demonstrating their bridge’s functionality and aesthetic appeal to a panel of professional engineers and architects in the PG&E auditorium in San Francisco.  Each member of the ACLC winning team received $100 and a commemorative plaque.