Skudai, October 8th: About 130 participants participated in the Bridge Model Design Competition 2009 organised by the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at Dewan Sultan Iskandar.
The two-day competition which begun from October 6th until 7th 2009 received participation from 70 public and private institutions of higher learning and 60 secondary schools nationwide.The Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic and Internationalisation, Prof. Ir. Dr. Mohd. Azraai Kassim in a statement said that UTM had to carry out a special selection process since there were too many applicants for this competition.
“The application was more than we anticipated. The applications received were more than three hundred which came from all over Malaysia. It seems that this competition has been long awaited because it could provide a good platform for university and secondary school students to test their ability and to put into practice what they have learned,” he said.
The main objective for this event was to use of the competition as a platform for expanding the students’ creative and innovation minds besides encouraging networking and exchanging ideas amongst the students.The competition also meant to attract potential overseas students to pursue their study in UTM especially in the field of civil engineering.
The competition was held in two categories meant for university and secondary school students. The secondary school category was opened to form 4, 5 and 6 for local schools whereas for the university categorty, it was available for undergraduates students from local and international universities.“The marks have been summed up to identify the first, second and third overall winner.
All models were placed on the testing rig where a load of 5 kilograms will be applied using four strings approximately 150 millimeters from the centre of the bridge span and equipped with the hook at the end. 50 percent was allocated for lightness and strength, 30 percent for creativity and built ability while poster and multimedia presentation was 20 percent,” said Azraai.
The competition begun in 1999 with the first two competitions opened only to universities while the third, fifth and sixth (2001, 2005 and 2007) competitions were opened to national level and the fourth event which was held in 2003 opened its door to Asia Pacific universities and schools.
The overwhelming support and interest shown by the students have encouraged the faculty to organize the same competition and year 2009 has been the 7th time such event was organised.