On March 10, 2025, at Secondary Schools Bridge Demonstration Competition 2025 Rules, seven high school students from our school participated in the competition for the first time, and with their extraordinary creativity, profound theoretical foundation, and superb design skills, they won the third runner-up crown of the competition.
▲G11廖*洋、胡*越、李*谦、高*宸、张*晟、李*翼和G10黎*均获得2025届全港中学生桥梁设计大赛季军
Secondary Schools Bridge Demonstration Competition 2025 Rules attracted elite students from many of Hong Kong's top secondary schools to compete on the same stage. The competition aimed to stimulate and enhance secondary school students' strong interest and enthusiasm in the field of civil engineering structural design and construction. Through the suspension bridge design, the students were able to test their precise calculation of the structural strength of the bridge, and practiced their meticulous consideration of the choice of materials, connection methods and overall construction.
The core objective of the competition was to find the suspension bridge that could carry the highest weight trolley dive without losing stability. This is a challenge to the students' technical skills and an all-round test of their teamwork, innovative thinking and problem-solving abilities. Through this kind of practice, students can more intuitively feel the charm and power of civil engineering structures, and thus more firmly embark on the journey of exploring the world of architecture.
Our school insists that every student can be successful, and actively encourages students to participate in all kinds of practical competitions to combine knowledge and practice.
The Bridge Design Competition provides high school students with valuable hands-on experience. In the competition, students need to complete the whole process from conceptual design to detailed design, to modeling and testing. This kind of practical experience can enable them to better understand the various aspects of bridge design, master the design process and skills, and lay a solid foundation for their future careers in related professions.
When the scholars approached their high school teacher, Mr. Tengel, for help, Mr. Tengel was very surprised.
“When I found out that we were going to be participating in this bridge design competition, a little bit of pressure did well up in me. After all, our students had never been involved in this type of event before, and everything had to start from scratch. But when I saw the curiosity and enthusiasm in the children's eyes, the pressure was instantly transformed into motivation. I decided that no matter what, I would do my best to meet this challenge with them.”
In the days of preparation for the competition, the captain Zhang left a deep impression on Mr. Tengger. During the preparation stage of the preliminary competition, he often stayed up until 3:00 a.m. in order to perfect the design drawings, and his persistence and concentration made the teacher deeply admire him. Therefore, when the team elected the captain, he deserved to be recognized by everyone. They often worked overtime until 10 o'clock at night just to have a perfect presentation in the preliminary competition.
I remember that during the preliminary round, our team was deducted some points because the organizer did not make the rules clear enough. But the children were not discouraged by this, instead they bravely came forward to argue with the organizer. At that moment, the teacher saw the team spirit and meticulous thinking ability in them. Although they finally entered the final with the 4th place, the children didn't give up, they seriously summarized their experience, re-strengthened the guardrail, and made full preparations for the final.
On the day of the final, they resisted the great pressure and finally got the third place. At that moment, I was proud of them.
G11 Li, a member of the team, said that the preparation process experienced both confidence and frustration and disappointment at the same time, and that a bridge carries too many stories.
For a whole month, the seven of them met in the lab every night to design the structure, make the bridge, modify the slings, and test the loads. We encountered many challenges in the preparation for the competition, and the biggest difficulty was that due to a mistake in publicizing the theme of the competition, they had to overthrow and redo the original design of the bridge structure. However, everyone quickly adjusted their mindset, redesigned, and finally succeeded in completing the revised program before the finals.
As the captain of the team, Mr. Zhang wrote a handwritten letter to his teachers and teammates after the competition. In the letter, he mentioned that our school was the only mainland school among the eight participating schools, and that we were able to stand out and win the valuable third place among the eight participating schools.
During the preparation process, they encountered a lot of challenges and difficulties not found in books, but by finding solutions step by step, Zhang, as the leader of the team, not only further strengthened his coordination, organization and leadership skills, but also gradually strengthened his ability to resist pressure in the midst of setbacks.
In the process of preparing for the competition, Zhang strengthened his choice of majoring in civil engineering and aspired to develop his career in that area.
High school students' participation in bridge design competitions has a profound impact on their future career development. Students are able to broaden their career horizons and increase their competitiveness in job searching, along with their professional skills and comprehensive qualities.
Our school encourages more students to participate in practice competitions, grow in challenges and progress in competition.
