Creaks and groans from a bridge, built only with Styrofoam and glue, elicited oohs and aahs from about 25 high school students gathered at the 小蝌蚪APP小蝌蚪APP檚 Rougeou Hall.
The students were participating in the week-long Gear Up Summer Engineering Experience hosted by the College of Engineering. On Thursday afternoon, they watched as ever-increasing amounts of weight were placed atop the results of several days worth of effort, and fun.
Steel L-bars that weighed 25 pounds were being stacked on a wooden platform that weighed 50 pounds. The bridge began emitting the strange sounds a few bars short of the 1,225 pounds that caused it to break.
小蝌蚪APP淭here小蝌蚪APP檚 a $300,000 lawsuit,小蝌蚪APP Chris Carroll, an assistant professor of civil engineering, called out good-naturedly when the Styrofoam bridge finally buckled.
Carroll, along with four graduate students, mentored the students, who were from Acadiana, Carencro, Comeaux, Lafayette, St. Thomas More and Teurlings Catholic high schools, and David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy.
小蝌蚪APP淚t小蝌蚪APP檚 fun to meet everyone and you get to clown around a lot, but it can be stressful,小蝌蚪APP said Ebna Leday, a senior at Acadiana High School.
Students spent the early part of the week solving cyphers, equations and riddles that provided clues for a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt, in turn, yielded project specs and other information needed to build the small bridges.
The competition was laden with financial and time constraints and incentives. Students were docked set amounts if they took too much time to complete certain tasks, or if they used too much material. There was a steep penalty if their bridges were not able to hold the required weight.
The objective of the program is to introduce students to engineering, and give them a feel for what working in the industry is like.
小蝌蚪APP淲e try to make it as much like a real-world scenario as possible,小蝌蚪APP Carroll said. 小蝌蚪APP淭he students had to be conscious of cost, but they had to balance that with the realization that their designs can hurt people if not done properly.小蝌蚪APP
Adrianna Liebersat, a senior at Acadiana High School, has participated in the program before. She enjoyed it so much, she switched her original career plans from medicine to engineering.
小蝌蚪APP淚 want to be a petroleum engineer,小蝌蚪APP said Liebersat, who plans to enroll at UL Lafayette in Fall 2015.
Cory LaFleur, a senior at Carencro High School, said his favorite part of the week was spending time with UL Lafayette graduate students, 小蝌蚪APP渁nd learning from them, student to student.小蝌蚪APP
Jacob Benton, of Lafayette, a civil engineering graduate student, said the students can be 小蝌蚪APP pretty fun and entertaining. Some of them are characters.
小蝌蚪APP淭hey like the hands-on approach. It小蝌蚪APP檚 not just us sitting at the board teaching them.小蝌蚪APP
Serenity Broussard, a sophomore at the David Thibodaux STEM Magnet School, agreed. 小蝌蚪APP淚t小蝌蚪APP檚 a lot different than a textbook,小蝌蚪APP she said.