MNHS Engineering Group Win Competition

Manalapan High School's rookie engineering team achieved remarkable success by winning first place in both Design and Presentation at the David Good 3D Printed Bridge Competition, held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark on March 21, 2025. 

The team was comprised of five students including Science & Engineering Magnet Program freshmen Avvin Budhiraja, Michael Christie, Brandon Ma, and Vedant Umesh, and junior Gio Uyar. Their design was inspired by the structurally efficient K trusses of the Ikitsuki Bridge in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. To ensure a quick construction time on-site and to reduce costs, the team drew inspiration from the slide locks used in the Nintendo Switch video game console. They developed their designs in CAD, and two students 3D printed the models over the course of five days. Additionally, the students gained their first experience with finite element analysis, studying stresses, safety factors, design specifications, and working with stringent structural inspectors.

The team was mentored by Dr. Dennis Evangelista, a Physics and Engineering teacher in the Science & Engineering Magnet Program. He guided the students through the engineering design process, encouraged creative problem-solving, and helped them connect classroom concepts to real-world applications. The competition was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the NJIT Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department.

Despite being first-time competitors, the students performed exceptionally well against strong teams from New Jersey and New York. The MNHS bridge managed to max out the load machine, supporting a load of 140 kg (1400 N), which is more than most people can bench press. It carried 200 times its weight without breaking!

Additionally, Michael Christie achieved a personal best construction time of 30.67 seconds, faster than some can run 200 meters or solve a standard Rubik's Cube.