Winners of the collegiate competition to design a titanium pedestrian bridge for The University of Akron campus will be announced on Thursday, May 20 at a 6 p.m. awards dinner at InfoCision Stadium-Summa Field.
More coverage:
Titanium bridge design competition for University of Akron narrowed to five finalists, Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 16.
Judges will award first- and second-place winners as well as three designated as honorable mentions. This spring, judges winnowed the competing teams to five: Kent State University, Ball State University, Miami University, and two from UA. The surviving teams then presented their designs to the judges last month.
The Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC) of North Canton and UA co-sponsored the competition to showcase the cost-effectiveness and practicality of titanium in meaningful use.
The DMTC will provide tuition scholarships for students on the five final teams and convey grants to their institutions for the study of specialty metals in commercial applications.
First titanium bridge
The new titanium bridge will help solve a logistical problem at the Quaker Square Inn at the University of Akron, which is separated from the main campus by railroad tracks. The absence of a bridge forces pedestrians to use remote bridges to access the main campus. When built, it will be the first bridge in the United States made exclusively of titanium.
In 2007, Congress funded the DMTC, headquartered at Stark State College in Canton, as a U.S. Army Center of Excellence. The design competition aligns with DMTC’s mission to make known the multiple applications of titanium. Titanium is lighter and stronger than steel and does not rust.
Increased use of titanium, according to the DMTC, should lower its cost and in turn, should allow the military to use more armor-quality titanium in life-saving armaments.
Media contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.