A team of students from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Macau (UM) has won the Excellent Team Work prize at the Second National Competition of Structural Design for University Undergraduates 2008 in Dalian.

The Second National Competition of Structural Design for University Undergraduates 2008 was held in Dalian University of Technology from 22 to 25 October. Jointly organized by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and China Civil Engineering Society, this competition is one of the seven formal university competitions authorized by the Ministry of Education of China.

This year, the competition has attracted the participation of 47 teams from 46 universities all over the country. Having won Third Prize at the Fifth International Inter-University Invitational Civil Engineering Competition held at Tongji University early this year, the UM team was specially invited by the organizers to join this competition. It is encouraging that, being the first time to join this challenging competition, the team could be awarded the Excellent Team Work prize. The UM team consists of three students, namely Bing Liu, Sai Luo and Jielin Lu, and was led by the team leader Associate Professor Kun-Pang Kou and the supervisor Associate Professor Guokang Er from UM.

The structural model presented at the competition by the UM team was a cable-stayed bridge. With a light appearance in design and proper application of mechanics principles, their model was highly recognized by the judges. Although at the beginning the UM team spent a lot of time analyzing the materials they used for building and designing the model, they finally finished their work within two days before the deadline. Their being well organized and highly efficient have led them to success and won the Excellent Team Work prize.

Caption: The UM Team won the Excellent Team Work prize at the Second National Competition of Structural Design for University Undergraduates 2008