Si Wei - Beyond Structure 2018

Beyond Structure 2018:
Form and Function Competition

| 20 October 2018 |

written on March 16, 2022

This was my second time participating in the competition on behalf of my faculty and it was the most relaxing I had ever experienced before a competition. Why did I say that? I didn't mean this competition was not challenging. Instead, the fact was just on the contrary. The most terrible thing in life is that you never know what is going to happen next. I think this sentence was quite in line with this competition. This is because, before the competition, we didn't know what we would build in this competition. What materials and tools will be provided? How much time was given? The only thing we knew was the theme of this competition, namely Form and Function.

Overview of Beyond Structure 2018

Beyond Structure 2018 was an international competition organised by Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) and Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Malaysia Regional Group. It was co-sponsored by Yayasan Canselor UNITEN and Tenaga Nasional Berhad. The objectives of the competition were to develop creativity amongst civil engineering students in structures and to apply knowledge and theory from the study course into practice. It was held at Dewan Seri Sarjana, UNITEN Putrajaya Campus on 20 October 2018.

A total of 37 teams from 23 universities in Malaysia and Singapore participated in this competition. Out of 37 teams, 23 teams participated in the First Team Category and 14 teams participated in the Second Team Category. 23 universities from Malaysia and Singapore included:

SEGI University

UCSI University

Heriot-Watt University

Universiti Malaya (UM)

University of Nottingham

Universiti Selangor (UNISEL)

INTI International University

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP)

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

Nanyang Technological University

Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)

Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)

Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN)

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR)

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL)

International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM)

Beyond Structures 2018: "FORM AND FUNCTION" competition was based on a conceptual and physical structural model challenge. The participating teams were required to build a structural model with pedestrian bridge features using the given materials and tools within 4 hours, and the structural model shall meet the requirements, conditions, restrictions and targets announced by judges on the day of competition. All teams in the First Team Categories were required to prepare and make a presentation to the judges on various design aspects and issues. The completed models were then evaluated and tested by a panel of judges selected by IStructE (Malaysia) against specified criteria.

The materials and tools given in the competition were as follows:

Newspapers

Cellophane tape

Scissors

My Story

This competition was held during my university semester break. Therefore, I went to the competition venue directly from my hometown, instead of following my mentor's car from Perlis to Selangor on the competition day. Our team consisted of 8 students from Year 1 to Year 4 and we were in Second Team Category.

During the competition, we discussed and put forward our bridge design idea. After finalising the idea, each of us was assigned different tasks. Some were in charge of rolling the newspapers, while others were in charge of building the bridge model. I have been assigned to roll the newspapers. Perhaps some of you might think that it is easy to roll the newspaper. Yes, I agreed with this too because I believed everyone could roll a newspaper. However, rolling up a newspaper with only a small void in it is not as easy as we thought. It was a time-consuming task and required patience and countless attempts. A rolled newspaper with a small void in it tends to be stiffer and stronger, and we needed such rolled newspaper to build our structure in order to withstand the loads applied during testing.

After rolling up enough newspapers, we helped each other to build our bridge model. Eventually, we finished just before the time ran out. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief for that. The model was judged from three aspects:

Conceptual
Form and Function
Material

Out of 14 participating teams in Second Team Category, my team won 7th place. This might not be the best result for us, but I think each of us has learned a lot from this competition. This competition has improved my skills in problem solving, communication, teamwork, creativity and time management.

Lastly, I would like to thank all my team members and I appreciated every single moment we worked together.

Photo

- End -

posted on March 17, 2022 | 19:10 PM

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