OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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WHO WE ARE
The Oregon State University Steel Bridge Team competes in the annual Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC). The team is a collaboration between the OSU student chapters of American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), as well as the welding department at Linn Benton Community College (LBCC). Our team's goal is to provide students with hands-on learning experiences, opportunities to develop professional skills, and a supportive, fun community united by shared passions for engineering and turning the seemingly impossible into reality.
WHAT WE DO
The SSBC requires the team to design and fabricate a 1:10 scale model steel bridge completely from scratch each year. Students work as a team to design a bridge that overcomes the unique challenges presented for each year's competition. Each challenge mimics a real-life engineering challenge that certified engineers must account for. The creation of our bridge is a year-long project that culminates in competing at the Pacific Northwest Student Symposium regional competition with the opportunity to qualify for the National Student Steel Bridge Competition.
DESIGN, FABRICATE, AND ASSEMBLE
Students are provided with opportunities to develop professional skills including communication, teamwork, project management, and problem-solving, along with opportunities to develop engineering skills such as truss design, cost estimating, and developing proficiencies in commonly-used engineering softwares (RISA3D, AutoCAD, BlueBeam Revu, and Excel). The fabrication process of the bridge also provides students with the opportunity to learn how to weld and construct with steel.
The assembly portion of the competition requires our team to bring the disassembled members of our bridge to the regional competition and put the bridge together live in a timed contest against other colleges and universities. After the bridge is assembled, it is loaded with 2500 lb to measure the vertical deflection and 50 lb to measure the horizontal deflection. Our bridge is ranked against other schools based on the categories of aesthetics, construction speed, lightness, stiffness, construction economy, structural efficiency, and cost estimation.
Check out a video of our 2025 bridge design process here!
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Your generous support means the world to us! Thanks to your contributions, we are able to provide impactful experiences to our student members, afford steel and tools to construct our 2025 bridge, and send our team to compete at the 2026 Pacific Northwest Student Symposium in Anchorage, Alaska.
INTERESTED IN SPONSORING OUR TEAM?
If you are interested in sponsoring our team for the 2027 competition, please reach out to our Co-Captains Samantha (obriens6@oregonstate.edu) and Chloe (farrisc@oregonstate.edu) for more information about sponsorship levels and how to donate.
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
CONNECT WITH US
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Samantha O'Brien Steel Bridge Co-Captain |
Chloe Farris Steel Bridge Co-Captain |
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Aiden Foley AISC Treasurer |
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Dr. Judy Liu Faculty Advisor |
Spencer Adams Practitioner Advisor |