Destination Imagination Balsa Truss Bridge
In fourth grade, this project was one of my first introductions into engineering. The competition was through an organization called Destination Imagination; the event required that a bridge be built to hold as much weight as possible, with a number of restrictions on materials and total bridge weight. Although I learned a great deal about structural engineering design, I did not fully understand the science behind it. This largely meant that my designs had many error in them that would not be revealed until we constructed a prototype and tested it. However, we iterated over our design many times, resulting in our competition bridge supported a total of 475 pounds (which earned us 2nd place in the Global competition).