Copley High School swept the top three spots at this year’s Summit County Miniature Bridge Building Competition.
The annual event, organized by the Summit County Engineer’s Office, celebrated its 25th year this year and drew record participation. Thirty-seven teams from 18 schools competed March 4 at the Summit County Fairgrounds in Tallmadge.
Students spent months designing and building miniature bridges that were tested during the competition for strength and structural performance.
Copley dominated the competition, taking all three top placements.
First place went to Copley Team 2, made up of Nathaniel Ames, Noah Holmberg and Jonah Rothschild.
Second place went to Copley Team 1 with Jack Foster, Roman Kuppusamy and Gavin Dies.
Third place went to Copley Team 3, made up of Aria Ahmadi, Grant Hyne and Ben Yacknow.
The first-place team also takes home the competition’s traveling championship trophy, which will be displayed at Copley High School until next year’s event.
Several additional awards were also handed out during the competition.
The Computer-Aided Design award went to Team 3 from the Four Cities Educational Compact.
The Manual Drawing award went to Copley Team 2.
The Aesthetics award went to Team 1 from the Four Cities Educational Compact.
Summit County Engineer Alan Brubaker said the competition has grown into one of the office’s most successful educational outreach programs.
This year’s event included teams from Summit County schools as well as students from Akron STEM High School, Bio-Med Science Academy, Akron Early College High School and Six District Compact programs.
Local engineers and industry professionals volunteer as judges and mentors during the competition, giving students a chance to apply classroom knowledge to a real-world engineering challenge.
The program is funded through support from local engineering firms, construction companies and community partners.
