A group of four Elizabethtown College Engineering students recently competed in a virtual Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) Bridge Design Contest on Jan. 21, placing sixth among nearly two dozen competitors.
Megan Fisher ’27, Hannah Long ’27, Whitney Davis ’27, and Munia Kamal ’27 worked as a team to design and build a model bridge as part of the competition, which was sponsored by the Indiana Structural Engineers Association. Elizabethtown College Associate Professor of Engineering Jean Batista Abreu served as the group’s mentor, providing guidance and hands-on assistance throughout the design process.
“Experiences like the KEEN Bridge Design Contest give students an opportunity to apply concepts to meaningful engineering challenges,” Batista said. “Through hands-on design, testing, and iteration, they gain a deeper understanding of structural behavior and the teamwork required in professional practice.”
Competing schools across the nation were judged on their bridge’s structural efficiency, determined by their strength-to-weight ratio. Contestants were tasked with building a model bridge using only cardstock and staples that met clearly specified dimension requirements. The models were tested in virtual judging sessions in which loads of a predetermined weight were suspended from the bridges to test their strength.
The Etown students’ model bridge ended up supporting a load over nine times larger than its self-weight.
“Their work reflects Etown Engineering’s emphasis on curiosity, problem-solving, applied learning, and creativity,” Batista said. “The team carefully considered structural stability and load paths to identify critical members requiring reinforcement, while also minimizing weight through material optimization. By applying concepts from Mechanics of Materials and Structural Analysis, students were able to complete a thoughtful and effective engineering design.”
About the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN)
The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) is a partnership of 70 colleges and universities in America focused on reaching undergraduate engineering students with an entrepreneurial mindset. KEEN offers conferences to exchange best practices, collaborative granted work, faculty mentorship, on-campus programs, and ambassadors to professional societies. Elizabethtown College joined KEEN in January 2023.
