The HKU team, Hong Kong's sole representative in the competition, comprised final-year students To Chiu-yin, 20, and Yim Fung-chiu, 21, together with second-year student Lau Ching-ling, 20.

All three engineering students said it was the first time they had participated in an international competition of this kind.

Three weeks before the event, the teams received information about the engineering project they had to tackle during the competition. The competing teams had to design a dome-shape model, within certain size limits, which could bear a weight of 15 kilograms and also be strong enough to withstand the stress of a three-kilogram ball falling on it from 25 centimetres above.

During the three-day event, the contestants spent the first two days making the model with the materials provided by the organiser. On the last day the judges tested the models.

All the models passed the momentum test, but HKU's model was the lightest, weighing a mere 27.2 grams. This was the crucial factor in the team's triumph in the competition.

They scored 95 points out of 100, while the first runner-up, Hanyang University, scored 68, with a model weighing 40.3 grams. The second runner-up was a team from Tongi University in China.

Mr To attributed his team's success to the way they designed their model. Instead of using computers for calculations as many of the other teams did, the Hong Kong undergraduates used more traditional ways of calculating - their hands and brains.

'This stimulated us to think more throughout the process,' he said.

'We streamlined our design bit by bit making it more robust but lighter.'

A light model means that the structure uses fewer materials, an important consideration for civil engineers working with architects in the real world.

The HKU team said they had enjoyed meeting their foreign counterparts and had learned a lot from the competition.