Don Cushing, Structural Engineer and one of the principals of Interactive Resources, brings together math and arts students from Bay Area high schools through Engineers Alliance for the Arts to design and build model bridges that are both strong and beautiful, encouraging prospective engineers in the process. Interactive Resources, a Richmond architecture and engineering firm, has a long tradition of community service, of which this is an exciting example.

The following is from today’s West County Times:  

Contest tests teens' ingenuity, creativity: The nuts and bolts of engineering

By Chris Treadway

CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:05/13/2007 03:02:45 AM PDT

The Engineers Alliance for the Arts wants to dispel a common misconception about structural engineering: It's not all about someone who sits in a room crunching numbers and calculating tolerances.

Many people who say they "don't get math" and never consider the profession are making a mistake, said Don Cushing, an engineer with Interactive Resources in Point Richmond and president of the Engineers Alliance.

"The chance to be an engineer is in the grasp of anybody who works hard, is enthusiastic and has a passion," he said. "Besides, it pays well."

The nonprofit alliance is in its seventh year of hosting a program and competition at Bay Area high schools intended to pique students' interest in a profession that sorely needs qualified candidates. Twelve to 20 firms help fund the six-week program, in which professionals donate their time in the classroom to cover the rudiments of engineering and bridge design to math and art students at five high schools.

This year's course lured math and art students from El Cerrito High and four San Francisco high schools into the classroom for six straight Saturdays.

The students learned that although mathematics are part of the profession, so are creativity, ingenuity, teamwork and problem-solving.

The course culminates with a design competition that puts all the lessons to the test in much the way a professional would experience.

This year's competition involved designing and building a model bridge to fit one of three fantasy scenarios: a replacement footbridge across the Napa River at Third Street in Napa, a replacement for an old wood bridge on the north shore of Kauai Island in Hawaii, and a car/pedestrian bridge from Pier 39 in San Francisco to Alcatraz Island.

The scenarios were enough to get the creative juices flowing, and the teams of four to six students employed their lessons to create designs using variations of the six standard types of bridges -- truss, arch, suspension, girder, rigid frame, cable stayed -- that they studied.

For the sixth straight year, student teams from Linda O'Connor's probability and statistics class at El Cerrito High School participated in the program and competition.

First- and second-place awards were given for each scenario, with members of the top team receiving a trophy and $100 each.

The El Cerrito Highteam of DeJay Boykins, Bronwen Harrison-Shermoen, Averil Mortimer, Michele Pangelina and Edith Pastrano won first place for its Napa River bridge.

The Alcatraz bridge by the El Cerrito team of Rose Cowens, J.T. Cunningham, Doug Fabini, Katie Salvador and Elizabeth Sanders won second place, and the Kauai bridge by the El Cerrito team of Kyle Bunthawong, Melody Edwards, Nick Lawson, Jacky Trimmer and Chris Wong won a special award.

The student teams had to use ingenuity to create a 36-inch-long model that was both practical and attractive from the permitted materials of foamboard, string, elastic cord, t-head and flathead pins, glue and ping pong balls.

Successful models had to bear a weight load of one brick at the center of the span. Models also were subjected to real-life standards by proving their ability to resist bending, twisting or pulling apart.

"We're trying to bring all aspects of our profession to this program," Cushing said. "Hopefully this will carry over to the students' life."

More than that, the students have to "sell" their creation just as an engineering firm would to a client, by providing a written essay and making an oral presentation to a live audience. The presentations and announcement of winners were made March 24 in the auditorium of the PG&E building in San Francisco.

"There's a lot of math, the geometry involved to do the arches, and the basic ideas of engineering -- tension, compression -- that they won't learn otherwise unless they take physics," said O'Connor, who heads the math department at El Cerrito High. "And there's also all the aside stuff that goes on that's not part of the program but is really valuable."

The rewards work both ways. The engineers consider it one of the highlights of their year even though it takes a substantial time commitment.

"Six weeks at four hours a shot, that's a lot of time," Cushing said. "We know a lot of them are making up (the lost work time) in the evening. The fact that we keep coming back, we know we're doing something right."

"You can see what drives teachers," he said. "You spark an interest they never thought they had."

One of the judges in this year's competition, in fact, is a UC Berkeley engineering student who took part in the program in high school.

"If they take away something, if they never look at a bridge the same way again, that's a plus," Cushing said. "If they say, 'Yeah, I think I'll go into that profession,' that's the icing on the cake. Maybe they'll also learn that having a job can be fun."

Reach Chris Treadway at 510-262-2784 or ctreadway@cctimes.com.

Learn more

Educators interested in finding out about the Engineers Alliance for the Arts bridge program and competition can contact Don Cushing at 510-236-7435 or Don.Cushing@intres.com.