About the Competition

Welcome to the New Jersey Institute of Technology's (NJIT) Steel Bridge Team! Each year our team competes a competition hosted by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to design and construct a steel bridge at a 1/10 scale. The bridge will be designed as small segments that are combined to create a solid structure that should be able to hold a substantial amount of weight. The bridge will also span an obstacle such as a river or an environmentally sensitive area which is off limits for construction, and can only make contact with the ground in predetermined locations. Each year, the rules will change slightly, forcing the team to develop innovative member connections, tools, and construction techniques in order to abide by the rules.

The Steel Bridge Team is comprised of undergraduate civil engineering students who must work together as a whole through three different phases: design and testing, fabrication, and competitive assembly. Our team will compete against teams from other schools on both the regional and national levels. Both the Metro Region and National Competitions are judged based on structural efficiency and construction economy, which uses the weight of the bridge, the number of the team members used to construct the bridge, and the center deflection of the bridge under a specified load to converted to a dollar value. The ideal bridge for every category would be a very lightweight yet strong structure that can be assembled quickly and with as few team members as possible.

Whether a freshman or a senior, each of the Steel Bridge Team's members will learn valuable professional skills such as:

  • Working in a group environment

  • Leadership skills

  • Time management

  • Problem solving skills

  • Communication with faculty, vendors, donors, and the community

This competition allows students to sharpen their skills while also applying their education to a real hands on problem and gaining experience that will help them in their future careers.