Weekly Post (week 9)

1. What you did in the prior week
In last week, I helped our group expend the bridge to 36”.  I discussed how to improve the bridge maximum load of the bridge with my group mates. I observed the failing process of the bridge and tried to fix the weakest spot of the bridge.

2. What you and your teammates have agreed you'll do in the coming week
In the next week, we will take our new bridge to participate the competition two. We will finish the final report which concludes the process of developing of the bridge.

3. Major accomplishments of the week for the team
Due to the excellent performance of the design of the last bridge, we decided to follow the original design on the new bridge. We used the 2-1/8” long chord to replace the 1-1/4” long chord in the original, and used the 3-3/8” long chord replace to the 2-1/8” long chord in the original. The size of every piece of the bridge has been enlarged to the next size. It is an efficient way to expand the bridge

4. Issues that the team or you as an individual faces
We still not found out a perfect solution of the weakest spot in the middle of the bridge. What’s more, the final exams are coming and everyone is busing preparing the final. At the same time, the whole team should work efficiently to finish a high quality report.

5. You've now almost completed the bridge design process for the term. What have you learned about bridge design specifically?
I have learned how to turn a design from the 2-Ddrawing to 3-D reality. Any designs need a clear and organized plan. Knowing the constraint, and develop your design based on the constraint. It is important to understand the academic basic of the design. It could help you to find out the weakest of the design theoretically, such as the compression force applied on the bridge. However, theory is different from the reality. The design should consider many other factors beyond the theory, such as the twist of the bridge in reality.