A 19-gram tower that supported almost 190 kg! Such feats at StrongTruss 2024. | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Ship Technology at the Gdańsk University of Technology

Each team presented one structure, which had to be a truss composed of at least six rods. The mass of the structure could not exceed 20 grams, and students were only allowed to use wood, paper, and glue for construction. The maximum height of the tower could be 22 cm, and the length of the bridge 36 cm.

In the bridge category, 9 teams participated, while 8 teams competed in the tower category.

"This is the second edition where we have two categories: bridge and tower. The tower is loaded from the top with a plate, and we can place weights on it—up to a maximum of 200 kg. The bridge is supported by two pillars at a distance of 30 cm. The bridge must have a central hole, where we place a rod. A plate rests on the bridge, connected to the rod, to which additional weights are attached from below. We measure the maximum load capacity of the structure—how many kilograms, how much force the structure can withstand," explained Dr. Oleksii Nosko, one of the organisers of the competition.

Student Structures

The students approached the competition with great optimism.

“We built a tower, everything is calculated in such a way that it should withstand any load. This is similar to how cranes are built, or even the Burj Khalifa—we were somewhat inspired by that,” said second-year Mechanical Engineering and Machine Construction students.

"We built the bridge using sticks that are typically used for dipping fruit in chocolate. The structure may look modest, but we believe it will withstand a significant load," added the students from Management and Production Engineering.

In the bridge category, the winning team was PolyBridge, which included Kacper Gutorski, Alan Ruciński, and Ignacy Rojek. Their structure withstood an impressive 20 kg—one thousand times the weight of the structure itself.

In the tower category, the winners were the Stabilni team, consisting of Miriam Grot and Mateusz Bruździak. Their structure measured 20 cm, weighed almost 19 grams, and withstood an astounding 187 kg!

The organising committee of StrongTruss 2024 would like to extend their sincere thanks to Mr. Sławomir Klimkiewicz and Mr. Dariusz Pruski for crafting the weights for the testing station in the bridge category.