Building better bridges between HK's schools

More than 400 students channelled their knowledge and creativity into building model bridges at an engineering competition held on April 12.

The Fifth Bridge Building Competition for Secondary Schools 2008 aimed to raise student's interest in civil engineering, to strengthen team spirit and to let students gain an appreciation of building work.

Eighty-eight teams participated in the event, made up of 430 students from 47 secondary schools.

Each of their model bridges was subjected to tests to see how much weight it could hold. Toy cars were placed on sections of each bridge to test the amount of pressure they could carry.

Ng Wah Catholic Secondary School won the Best Load Capacity, Best Design Award and the Grand Prize.

The school's winning design was engineered from materials that weighed just 0.23kg, yet it was capable of carrying 28kg.

The competition was jointly organised by the department of construction of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education Tsing Yi campus and the department of civil engineering at the University of Hong Kong.