The old proverb says, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That’s exactly what Cornwall High School seniors Matt Smith and Alex Combs did in the semi-final round of the West Point Bridge Contest. Their persistence paid off as they finished first overall and earned a trip to the finals on June 28 at West Point.
On May 30, competing against 40 of the top teams nationwide, team “Gold Money” had two hours to build a bridge under specific parameters, using the software West Point Bridge Builder 2014. After an hour, the duo decided to scrap their first bridge and build another.
“It seemed like we could do a better job,” Combs said. “It was a good bridge. It would have been competitive, but there wasn’t much more to do with it and it wasn’t as cheap as we thought we could get…. We figured why not try something out and it paid off for us.”
The two seniors’ involvement in the contest began last year as part of a lab requirement for Douglas Stack’s AP physics class. Smith and Combs were the two best in the class last year and decided to team up this year for the competition.
The qualifying round began Jan. 13 and ended May 2. During that time, teams were allowed to submit an unlimited number of bridges, but only the best would be used for the nationwide competition. The only goal was to build the cheapest, useable bridge. The software tests each bridge to determine if it will hold the heavy load of vehicular traffic. Gold Money submitted between 30 and 40 bridges, but built many more during the near four-month time-span.
Their best bridge placed them fourth in the nation, giving them less than a month to prepare for the semi-finals. Stack created a post season build schedule where he offered different scenarios under which to try and come up with the cheapest bridge possible. Gold Money competed against other Cornwall students, including a team they would face in the semi-finals. Branton Toback and Andrew Stein of team “Ironee” would eventually place fifth in the competition, enough to qualify them for the finals, except for a rule which dictates a school can only send one team to the finals.
Smith and Combs were nervous on the day of the semifinals, but they calmed themselves by constantly communicating.
“When it comes to building a bridge, Matt and I have different roles,” Combs said. “Matt’s the builder. He can press buttons faster than I can so he can build a lot faster than I can, which is definitely a bonus when you’re in the competitive rounds. He’s in charge of the computer and I help him make decisions on what to do. There are times when he’s not sure what to do at all and I’ll come in and start building a little bit. I’m slower, but I can usually find a part he might have overlooked and help him realize his mistakes.”
An hour after the competition ended, Gold Money learned it was in first place.They took a short break from bridge building in the days that followed.
Although they have each won a laptop already, their ultimate goal is the $5,000 top prize.
“I think Mr. Stack is going to prepare us pretty well,” Smith said. “I think a large part of our success is due to him. I don’t think I would be doing this competition if it wasn’t for him. But now that he exposed us to it, we like it. We’re actually pretty good at it.
