Official Rules

For complete information about eligibility, teams, procedures for entering, and judging, please download our Official Rules and read them carefully!

Eligibility

To compete in the 2020 Lehigh Valley Bridge Design Contest, you must be either:

• a student in grades 6-12, currently enrolled in a school located within the blue-shaded area of the Pennsylvania map at right; or

• a student who is legally home-schooled, studying at the 6th-12th grade level, and living within the blue-shaded area of the Pennsylvania map at right.

Contest Categories

You will compete in one of two contest categories, depending on your current grade level:

• Middle School Category – Grades 6-8
• High School Category – Grades 9-12

Teams

You may compete individually or in teams of two members each. Competing in teams of two is strongly encouraged.

There is no limit on the number of teams from a given school.

Schedule

The 2020 Lehigh Valley Bridge Design Contest will be conducted in two rounds:

• The Qualifying Round will begin at 1:00 p.m. on March 20, 2020 and will end at 1:00 p.m. on April 27, 2020.  During the Qualifying Round, you will submit your bridge designs by e-mail, using the procedure outlined below.

• The Final Round will be conducted at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, 2020, as discussed below.

How to Enter

To enter the Lehigh Valley Bridge Design Contest:

• Download the Bridge Designer 2016 software and install it on a Windows or Mac computer.

• Start up the Bridge Designer.

• After closing the Tip of the Day, select “Create a New Bridge Design” and click OK.

• On the Design Project Setup Wizard, click Next. Then, at Step 2, select “Yes, with a 6-character Local Contest Code;” and in the text box, enter the following code:  LVC46B

• Click Next; choose a template (OPTIONAL); then click Finish.

• Design a bridge that passes the load test and has the lowest possible cost.

• Save your bridge as a .bdc file.

• Attach your bridge design file to an e-mail message and send it to lvbridgecontest@gmail.com.
  • The subject of the e-mail message must be your contest category followed by the exact cost of your bridge design — for example, “Middle school, $123,456.78” or “High school, $234,567.89”.
  • The e-mail message itself must include: (1) the full name, age, and grade of each team member, (2) the e-mail address at which we can contact you, and (3) the name and address of your school (or, if you are home-schooled, your home address).

You may submit as many bridge designs as you like during the Qualifying Round,   Keep trying to improve your design by lowering its cost!

Scoreboard

Once the contest is underway, the top ten teams in each contest category will be posted on our on-line Scoreboard.  Check the Scoreboard often to see who’s winning!

Final Round

At the conclusion of the Qualifying Round, the top five teams in each contest category (but no more than two teams per school) will be invited to participate in the Final Round competition, which will be conducted at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, 2020.  In previous years, we have conducted the Final Round as a face-to-face competition; however, due to the COVID-19 crisis, this year we will conduct the Final Round online.  Teams will receive a new bridge project and will have exactly one hour to develop new bridge designs, using the Bridge Designer 2016 software.  At the end of this one-hour period, the winners will be named, and prizes will be awarded.

Prizes

• Each member of the top team in the High School Category will receive a $200 cash scholarship.

• Each member of the top team in the Middle School Category will receive a $100 cash scholarship.

These prizes are subject to change, based on our fund-raising efforts for this project.

Official Rules

For complete information about eligibility, teams, procedures for entering, and judging, please download our Official Rules and read them carefully!