May 25 2010
The University of Akron Blue Team has taken First Place in the Student Titanium Pedestrian Bridge Design Competition sponsored by the Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC) of North Canton, Ohio.
New Titanium Pedestrian Bridge Design
Judges chose Ball State for Second Place. They also selected three teams for Honorable Mention. First Honorable Mention was the University of Akron Gold Team. Second Honorable mention was Kent State University, and third Honorable mention was Miami University of Ohio.
Winners were announced Thursday night at a dinner and awards ceremony at InfoCision Stadium, the new University of Akron Football complex. Guests included Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and University of Akron President Luis Proenza.
"We were pleased and surprised by the quality of the submissions," said Victor J. Scaravilli, Chairman and CEO, Mole Constructors, Inc., an international tunnel builder, speaking on behalf of the judges. "They demonstrate that a young generation is emerging in America that can handle future our infrastructure challenges."
The new Titanium Pedestrian Bridge will help solve a logistical problem at the Quaker Square Inn at the University of Akron, which serves as a residence hall, hotel, and conference center. The development is fenced off from the main Akron campus by railroad tracks, which forces pedestrians to use remote bridges to access the main campus.
Government and private funding will be sought for the bridge construction, which will be the first bridge in the United States constructed exclusively of titanium.
Titanium has advantages over other metals. It weighs much less than steel, yet is just as strong, if not stronger. It does not rust and is corrosion-resistant to salt water and chlorine. Many experts believe that bridges secured with titanium would be better protected against a possible collapse than conventional steel-supported bridges.
This increasing use of titanium, according to the DMTC, should help lower its cost and, hence, allow the military to use more armor plate-quality titanium in life-saving armaments.
"This Competition shows that armor quality and structural titanium can readily be applied to meaningful creative commercial projects," says Charles Clark, executive director of the Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC). "We also achieved a goal of inviting design, architecture, and engineering schools in our region – America's Metals Heartland – to showcase the importance of Titanium in a major civilian use."
While America's Metals Heartland does not have specific boundaries, the DMTC loosely defines it as Ohio, Pennsylvania, eastern Indiana, southeast Michigan, northern Kentucky and northern West Virginia. This is where the nation's metals industry has traditionally been the strongest.
Judges this spring winnowed the final nine participating university teams to five. The surviving teams personally presented their entries to the judges earlier this spring.
The DMTC will provide scholarship money to students on the final teams. Likewise, it will convey grants to their institutions for the study of specialty metals in commercial applications.
"Titanium is poised to take its place as the metal of the future," adds retired 16th District Ohio Congressman Ralph Regula, who was instrumental in the formation of the DMTC. "Moreover, I hope this Design Competition will prod industry to produce more affordable quality titanium for commercial and military applications."
In 2007, Congress funded the DMTC, headquartered at Stark State College, as a U.S. Army Center of Excellence. This Design Competition is in line with the DMTC mission to make known the multiple applications of titanium. The University of Akron participated in the Competition sponsorship.
Along with Scaravilli and Regula, judges were Lillian A. Kuri, Program Director of Architecture, Urban Design and Sustainable Development, Cleveland Foundation. Leila L. Vespoli, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of First Energy Corporation; Job H. Lippincott, Publisher, Rubberworld Magazine; Paul Thomarios, President, Thomarios Companies, and Jeffrey Spangler, principal, R. E. Warner & Associates.