Remember the package-design-egg-drop challenge they make (or made) ID students do? Civil Engineering students at the Technical University of Munich face a similar challenge, except the egg is their professor.
In order to pass TUM’s Design & Construction 2 course, student teams each have to design and build a bridge that spans a given distance and adheres to a height limitation. The catch is that they have to bring the bridge to site, broken down in a standard-size shipping box.
They must assemble it within a time limit, and the bridge must not break during the test, which is when Timber and Building Construction professor Stefan Winter walks across it.
The exercise, called Brücke aus der Box (“bridge out of a box”) has been held annually for 20 years, yielding over 1,000 bridge designs.
Professor Winter elaborates on TUM’s holistic approach to education:
“We train engineers for their role in society. Studying is not just about imparting knowledge, it is also about training for other areas of life. For example teamwork, reasoning together, discussing what is wrong, what is right. Also dealing with failure from time to time. You have to learn all of that. I believe that we at TUM must continue to strive to educate people not only in pure theory, but also for life.”
This being Germany, victory can be celebrated with beer.
