Designing and building a bridge that can support 2,500 pounds — the weight of a small car or an adult giraffe — requires far more than just steel and bolts. It demands detailed planning, precise construction, and dedicated teamwork. For Cornell undergraduate engineering students, these skills are put to the test each year in the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC)’s Student Steel Bridge Competition.

The competition challenges student teams to engineer and construct a 23-foot-long steel span, and includes judged categories such as construction speed, lightness, stiffness, structural economy and efficiency. Teams must not only build a strong and lightweight bridge, but also do so quickly, under pressure, and at low cost. The resulting conveyance must resist bending when loaded. 

Cornell’s team rose to the occasion this spring, earning standout honors. The final structure was assembled in just 16 minutes, weighed only 216 pounds, and supported a 2,500-pound load with minimal bending. The bridge placed first in lightness and second in both stiffness and structural economy — making it one of the top-performing entries in the region.

Key to the team’s success was hands-on support from Cornell’s Student Machine Shop at the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics (LASSP), where students had access to industry-standard equipment and expert guidance.

Located in the basement of Clark Hall, the Student Machine Shop is a place where students across disciplines gain hands-on experience using industry tools — skills that translate directly to projects like Steel Bridge and beyond.

Credit: Savan DeSouza - Cornell University

“I think the users of the LASSP Student Machine Shop benefit from having experienced machinists across the hall that they can bounce ideas off of or get some help in setting up a more efficient process for completing their projects,” said Robert Page, LASSP Machine Shop supervisor.

“Our student shop is meant to support all departments across campus that have any machine shop needs,” Page said. “We have users from physics, chemistry, architecture, engineering, physical education — you name it.”

With help from LASSP machinists, the team completed their bridge fabrication in a record-breaking two weeks. That efficiency paid dividends — allowing for additional practice runs, refining their construction sequence and performing detailed testing to check for last-minute improvements.

“Having access to the Student Machine Shop allowed us to get so much more machining done due to how flexible and accessible its hours were,” said Kandice Lu, Fabrication Lead and Mechanical Engineering ‘26. “Being able to start and stop working on our own schedule was really nice and helped reduce disruptions and lost time.”

The team attributes their unexpected win in lightness to a purposeful focus on simplicity.

“It came as a shock to us,” Lu said. “But I suppose it was a byproduct of having fewer extraneous components and connections to weigh down our bridge. Hopefully, this year’s success can also be a jumping-off point for future designs.”

Each academic year, the Steel Bridge Team moves through an intense cycle of design and build. The fall semester focuses on computer-aided design, structural analysis and selecting a final bridge concept. In the spring, they shift to hands-on fabrication, welding and construction — bringing months of planning to life with real steel, tight deadlines and collaboration that reflects teamwork.

“I would recommend the LASSP Student Machine Shop to future students or teams who have a lot of fabrication needs,” Lu said. “The staff were very helpful and informative. The training here is much more in-depth and taught me things the standard engineering shop training did not.”

Learn more:
LASSP Student Machine Shop
Cornell Steel Bridge Project Team