Judging days are being held throughout late July and August in Gladstone, Mackay, Darwin, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne (as well as in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand), and local winners announced in each region.

The competition not only provides students with a bridge engineering challenge to solve, but also provides the avenue of feedback from expert judges. The battle for the cash prizes will be played out in front of all local participating schools at each judging location, with the spectacle of seeing the bridges load-tested to destruction.

STEM subjects are the building blocks for the inquisitive, adventurous and inventive to make engineering and technology work, but are also considered to be an important building block for the future of the Australian economy.

According to Australia’s Chief Scientist, advances in the physical, mathematical and biological sciences in the past 20 to 30 years has underpinned $330 billion a year of Australia’s economic output. STEM employees have also been found to be some of the most innovative workers, and their skills in active learning and critical thinking are highly valued. However, employers have reported difficulty in recruiting STEM qualified staff.

“Aurecon believes that by enabling students to get hands on and learn the basic principles of engineering, our global engineering organisation is helping to proactively develop Australia’s next generation of engineers,” said Mr William Cox, Aurecon’s Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand.

“Engineering is a great career choice for the youth of today offering a strong likelihood of employment in a diverse range of fields,” he said. “Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda, for example, estimates that within the next decade approximately 75 per cent of jobs in the fastest-growing industries will demand science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”

Bridge and structural engineering experts from Aurecon and competition supporters have been appointed as judges to assess each bridge for workmanship, creativity, visual appeal and functionality to determine an overall score. New prizes for award categories have been added to the competition in 2016 for an all-round, innovation, efficiency and strength awards.

New building materials, testing and scoring mechanisms and award categories are a few of the clever innovations that a group of Monash University engineering students designed for this year’s competition.

Winners in each region are announced on the day after the testing of all bridges has been completed and scores tallied.

Acknowledgements

Aurecon would like to acknowledge the support of the following organisations in the running of the 2016 Aurecon Bridge Building Competition:

Sydney: Engineers Australia
Brisbane: The Department of Transport and Main Roads, Edmond Rice Performing Arts Centre (ERPAC)
Melbourne: VicRoads, Scienceworks, Spotswood, Melbourne
Gladstone: Gladstone Area Water Board (GAWB), Central Queensland University Gladstone
Mackay: Field Engineers & FKG Group, Mackay Regional Council, Vassallo Construction Pty Ltd, DGH Engineering, Central Queensland University Mackay
Darwin: Charles Darwin University, BMD Construction

Judging events

Date	Location	No. of Schools
Thurs, 28 Jul	Art Gallery of South Australia (Radford Auditorium), North Terrace, Adelaide.	13
Wed, 3 Aug	Edmond Rice Performing Arts Centre (ERPAC) at St Laurence’s College, 82 Stephens Road, South Brisbane.	22
Wed, 3 Aug	Scitech, City West Centre, Corner Railway Street and Sutherland Street, West Perth, WA	26
Thurs, 4 Aug	Building 1, Central Queensland University Australia, 151 Boundary Road, Ooralea, Mackay Qld	16
Fri, 5 Aug	Rex Metcalf Theatre and Foyer, Leo Zussino Building, Central Queensland University, Bryan Jordan Drive, Gladstone, Qld	11
Tues, 9 Aug	The Domain Theatre, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney, NSW	71
Thurs, 11 Aug	Scienceworks, 2 Booker Street, Spotswood, Melbourne Vic	47
Fri, 26 Aug	Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Drive, Casuarina, Darwin, NT	7

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