About

The West Virginia Bridge Design & Build Contest Promotes STEM education and career exploration by providing middle school and high school students with a realistic, hands-on introduction to Civil Engineering.  The contest is open to All 6-12 grade students enrolled in a West Virginia public, private, or home school. 


The West Virginia Bridge Design & Build Contest aims to:


Provide students with an opportunity to learn about the engineering design process


Provide realistic, hands-on experience that will help students to understand how engineers design structure


Demonstrate how engineers use the computer as a tool to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the design process


Provide a tool for visualizing structural behavior – a tool that will help understand how structures such as truss bridges work


Provide an opportunity for students to apply their bridge design skills by constructing a bridge from balsa wood material


Have fun pitting problem-solving skills against those of other virtual bridge designers around the state


Sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the West Virginia Department of Education, BridgeWalk, and West Virginia University Institute of Technology

For media inquiries or more information, please email dotwvbdb@wv.gov.