Week 3: Breslin

In the previous week, many aspects of the general group have been decided. The roles of each individual in the group were assigned. Amanda Ngov would be in charge of the design and construction of the bridge in the utmost efficient way. Corey Duane is responsible for keeping records of the changes and updates occur throughout our process of bridge design. Finally, I will hold the position as team leader. This makes me responsible for the entire team to make sure that we are on task, jobs are being completed and progress is being made.

Together, each member of the group had come up with a possible design for the bridge that was to be tested. This was completed through the West Point Bridge Design program. The group played around with different types of trusses but discovered it was essential to include triangles throughout the design. After many trial and errors, the group was able to come up with some potential designs. The down flaw to this process is it is hard for the entire group to use the program around. The members that were not using the computer seemed to dictate to the computer user what to do. This lead to a lot of miscommunication and many failed bridge designs.

Some questions that seem to be necessary to ask when researching a bridge are:

1. Throughout history, which general bridge design seems to be the most effective?
2. How does the wear and tear on the bridge affect it?
3. What is the main cause of most bridge failures?