UND Steel Bridge Team Advances to National Finals

Posted: May 13, 2025

The University of North Dakota steel bridge team recently qualified for the Student Steel Bridge Competition National Finals to be held May 30-31 at Iowa State University in Ames. The team is advised by Sattar Dorafshan, CTIPS director for UND.

During the regional competition April 10-12 in Milwaukee, WI, the team competed against teams from 13 other universities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. At the regional competition, the UND team placed first in construction economy, construction speed, and cost estimation; second place in structural efficiency; and third place in stiffness and lightness. The team placed second overall.

The Student Steel Bridge Competition is an annual event that challenges student teams to develop a scale-model steel bridge. Team members must determine how to fabricate their bridge and then plan for an efficient assembly under timed construction at the competition. Bridges are then load tested and weighed. The bridge must span approximately 20 feet, carry 2,500 pounds, and meet all other specifications of the competition rules. Bridge aesthetics are also judged and considered in the final results.

A UND team also took first place in the Concrete Cornhole competition at the Milwaukee event. In the competition, each school provided a self-created cornhole board made from concrete. Judging was based on scoring in a double-elimination tournament, aesthetics of the board, and technical criteria related to the concrete mixture and adherence to the specified dimensions.