After hours of strategizing and building, groups of young engineers rallied to put their toothpick bridges to the test.  Of the eight groups that participated, junior Daniel Amuedo’s bridge came out on top, holding over 100 pounds.

“I guess you could say that in the end mathematics wins,” Amuedo said. “I spent 15 hours in my basement building this bridge by myself, so it’s exciting to see all that work pay off.”

Weight was placed on a cart and rolled across each bridge to test its strength.  The groups had to apply their architectural knowledge to build the best bridge possible.

“I was impressed with all the bridges our groups constructed,” Engineering Club moderator Joe Feld said. “The whole point of this contest is to learn and have fun as you build, so I think it was a good exercise for the students.”

Amuedo and freshman Alec Rico, both in one-man groups, had bridges that managed to withstand all of the weight brought for the contest, so extras were brought from De Smet’s weight room.  Both bridges held their ground under 107 pounds of weight.

“The weight I expected my bridge to hold was around 25 pounds,” Amuedo said. “Watching it hold so much weight really made me nervous.”

Though both bridges held the same weight, Rico’s weighed more than Amuedo’s and topped the height limit set. Amuedo’s weighed in at 156 grams, yet held 48,000 kg. Feld said that he was impressed with both bridges.

“They totally exceeded any idea of how much weight I thought these bridges could hold,” Feld said. “I was flabbergasted when we crested 100 pounds and these bridges were still standing.”

Both finalists were awarded $25 Chick-fil-A gift cards and Amuedo was crowned the winner of this year’s toothpick bridge build contest.

“I didn’t expect to come this far in,” Amuedo said. “But the fact that I won was a great surprise.”