Three undergraduate students from the University of Macau’s (UM) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, namely Fan Yawang, Chan Sio Man, and Pun Ian In, placed third among all the teams and received the second prize at the Ninth Inter-University Invitational Civil Engineering Competition, which was held at Shanghai Jiaotong University, from 10 July to 15 July.

This year’s competition dealt with the challenging issue of designing earthquake resistant bridges. Each contesting team was required to design and build an earthquake-resistant model bridge with wood. The model bridge was then tested by having a model car with asymmetrical loading moving from one end to the other, under different combinations of earthquake intensities on both ends of the bridge. The model that demonstrated the highest efficiency ratio would be declared the winner. The model designed by the UM team, which combined elements of both an arch bridge and a beam bridge, placed third among all the model bridges and received the second prize. The UM team was led by Prof Er Guokang, with Dr Lam Chi Chiu and Mr Tou Ka Man providing assistance on model testing.

The competition attracted 16 teams from Asian and Australian universities that enjoy great renown in the field of civil engineering, including the National University of Singapore, Monash University, the University of Hong Kong, Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur, Tsinghua University, Tongji University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Central South University. The first prize went to the team from Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the other second prize went to Central South University.

The biennial competition aims to provide a platform for civil engineering students from around the world to showcase their creativity and skills, to establish international linkages, and to exchange ideas with their peers from diverse backgrounds. The first competition was held at Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2000. UM was the host of the third competition in 2004. UM received a second prize at the Seventh Inter-University Invitational Civil Engineering Competition held in 2012.