Design Day
Design Day Event
The new Engr. 111 course culminated on Wednesday march 31st with a Design Day event held in the Michel Pujol room at the SUB. All the students grouped in teams of three presented their design solutions for a moving bridge loosely based on the criteria for the Johnson Street Bridge replacement schemes. The mechanical design was integrated with electrical systems and a software algorithm to coordinate the safe passage of river and road traffic.
There were seventy two bridge designs representing the entire range of possible approaches, including the rolling and reverse bascule configurations, the swivel bridge, the raising bridge, and even the single car with its short stretch of road cable car. To detect the presence of cars on the bridge, there were a wide variety of sensor configurations even including a laser beam bouncing up and down the span at 45 degree angles.
The judges came from the worlds of academy as well as industry. The event Started at 5pm, and lasted until 8. The judges went around in groups of two, and each pair was assigned a number of projects to evaluate. The jury teams had each student team make a five minute presentation where they pointed out the main features of their solution and went over the highlights of their design process.
After they had presented their respective solutions the teams who wished so could have their bridges tested to failure with an exceedingly heavy vehicle equipped with an eccentric rotating weight that caused high frequency cyclic loading.
At the end prizes were awarded for different categories such as best overall design, most elegant solution, strongest span, best use of recycled materials and most likely to cause injury. The proceedings were conducted in an atmosphere of good humour and provided a congenial ending to what was generally perceived as an enjoyable and stimulating learning experience.
