Engineering Academy News

East Bay Bridge Tours

During the months of November and December Parker Merrill took the 12^th and 11^th grade classes on an ‘after school educational adventure’ to the construction site of the new East Bay Bridge.  The groups met at the bay bridge public information office.  Steve Padilla, Educational Outreach Program Manager for the Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Projects spoke with the students about the history of East Bay Bridge and the design and construction of the replacement bridge.  The students got to explore large scale models of bridge assembly components and afterwards rode out onto the bridge for a view of the Bay most of us can only imagine.

Factoid: Did you know that the bridge is a “Self-Anchored Suspension Span” has a nearly 1-mile long cable made of 17,399 steel wires that end to end, would be more 14,800 miles long or 60% percent of the Earth’s circumference?  Learn more at http://baybridgeinfo.org/

OTHS Engineering Academy Students recognized at WTS Engineering Conference

The WTS / Advancing Women in Transportation organization held their 2011 Annual Conference, “Building Bridges” in San Francisco on May 19^th 2011.  WTS extended a special invitation to OTHS Engineering Academy to have some of the women students attend the Annual Awards Reception and Banquet on as representatives of Bay Area HS Engineering Programs.

Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation for the Department of Transportation (and Bishop O’Dowd Graduate), spoke at the conference.  As part of his presentation Mr. LaHood rolled out a new partnership program with The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM.)  STEM’s Education Coalition works to support STEM programs for teachers and students at the U. S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that offer STEM related programs.

Websites of Interest:

• WTS / Advancing Women in Transportation website:  www.wtsinternational.org
• Engineer Your Life:  Program for middle school girls: http://www.engineeryourlife.org/
• Eweek Women in Engineering Programs: http://www.eweek.org/EngineersWeek/EngineeringWomen.aspx
• PBS programs: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/resources/subj_13_01.html
• All ASCE programs: http://www.asce.org/Audience/Kids-Parents-Teachers/
• STEM Coalition: http://www.stemedcoalition.org/
• Center at Northeastern on STEM: http://www.stem.neu.edu/programs.htm

2011 Engineering Bridge Competition

The 2011 Engineering Academy Bridge Building Competition

Hundreds of Oakland Tech students, staff and families assembled in the Engineering Academy again on April 5th, to witness the 18th Annual Bridge Competition. More than 60 Engineering Academy students looked on as their creations collapsed, crumbled and exploded to the thunderous ovation of the standing room only crowd.

Each bridge builder or team received the exact same materials (one ounce each of balsa wood and Elmer’s glue, as well as a small spool of thread), to design and build a suspension bridge to a specific set of standards and specifications.

This year’s winning entry, an amazing combination of form and function, was able to support 13.6 lbs. of sand.

Special thanks to John Bliss and the American Society of Civil Engineers who provided bridge materials and pizza, several corporate program sponsors and congratulations to the champions and all of this year’s Engineering Academy bridge competition participants!

Bridge Competition in the News

2011 Bridge Competition Photos