Spaghetti bridge contest support continues to grow – Faction-ally

Okanagan College Media Release

A new supporter has come aboard for Okanagan College’s 36^th annual Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest.

Faction Projects Inc. is title sponsor for Okanagan College’s Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest in 2019. The company joins a host of other businesses and organizations that have stepped up to support the original, oldest, and best-known spaghetti bridge building competition in the world. There are other spaghetti bridge competitions: at last count approximately 34 globally, stretching from Buenos Aires to Budapest.

“This event looks like it’s about fun with pasta, but it’s so much more than that,” says Tim McLennan, Director of Design and Operations at Faction Projects. “It is a great way to introduce hundreds of students annually to the interplay between materials, physics and engineering. We need to invest in and support ways to interest the next generation of builders and doers in arts, science, technology, engineering and math – and if the mediums in use are pasta, glue and imagination, that works.”

“As an architect,” says McLennan, “I’ve been amazed over the years at how well some of the bridges have performed, but even more important to me is seeing the number of elementary, middle and high school students who participate. My son should take notes!”

The record at the OC Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest in the heavyweight competition was set a decade ago (2009) by two competitors from Hungary, Norbert Pozsonyi and Aliz Totivan of the Szechenyi Istvan University of Gyor: their bridge, weighing 982 grams, held 443.58 kilograms (975.88 pounds) before shattering. (The first Spaghetti Bridge competition was held in 1983 – the first heavyweight competition was held in 1988. By then, the College was describing itself as the “cradle of Spaghetti Bridge”).

The Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest runs March 1, at Okanagan College’s Kelowna campus – the Heavyweight competition is expected to start around noon in the theatre. The team building competition starts at 9:30 a.m. and elementary school demonstrations begin at 10 a.m. The lightweight competition commences at about 10:30 a.m.

This year, 11 teams or individuals have registered for the heavyweight competition. Rules are strict and posted online. Heavyweight competitors have a chance at prizes that begin with a $1,500-cash prize for first place. It is open to college, university, and K-12 students Grade 7 and higher.

Other sponsors for the Spaghetti Bridge contest include the Applied Science, Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. the Okanagan College Students’ Union, Multi-Power Products, CTQ Consultants, Interior Testing Services and OPM (Okanagan Precision Machine).