Students win top prizes at national model building competition

Winning team (left): Edward Shapcott, Miguel Ángel Puente Hervella, and Peter McHattie and third place team: Gareth Buhl, Alasdair Hannay and Alex Linkleter
Winning team (left): Edward Shapcott, Miguel Ángel Puente Hervella, and Peter McHattie and third place team: Gareth Buhl, Alasdair Hannay and Alex Linkleter

Two student teams from the School of Engineering won top prizes at a national model building competition held earlier this month.

Two teams of fourth year civil engineering students won first and third places at the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Student Model Competition held at the University of Dundee at the start of February.

The two Edinburgh teams beat stiff competition from across the nation, as the challenge was open to all undergraduate, taught postgraduate and graduate apprenticeship programme students at universities in Scotland.

The students were asked to work in teams of three to design and build a model tower, using limited materials including balsa wood. The structures were to be supported in a box filled with sand. The aim was to build a structure with the highest load-to-weight ratio, to show its strength and resilience against external forces.

Edinburgh teams won two out of the three prizes on offer, for creating model towers which demonstrated the best structural performance when tested with lateral loads.

The winning University of Edinburgh team were: Edward Shapcott, Miguel Ángel Puente Hervella, and Peter McHattie whose winning entry had a load to weight ratio of 4.31.

Placing third were: Alex Linkleter, Alasdair Hannay, and Gareth Buhl, whose tower had a load to weight ratio of 3.09.

A team from Edinburgh Napier University won second place with a load to weight ratio of 3.16.

Fourth year civil engineering student Miguel, from the winning team, said “It felt good to accomplish something at the national level, especially when representing the University. I believe that the fact that there were postgrad-based teams made the victory even more enjoyable.”

Commenting on the result, Professor Dilum Fernando said “We congratulate all teams on this amazing achievement.”

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