1. Time and Place

1.1. The competition will be taking place on the 19th of April 2018 from 9:45 to 15:00.

1.2. The competition will be held in Tallinn University of Technology in the Students’ House(Ehitajate tee 5, Tallinn, Estonia).

  1. Goals of the Competition

2.1. To popularize the profession of construction engineering.

2.2. To offer students and engineers in the field of construction engineering and architecture a challenge to employ their knowledge and through it enrich their work and studies.

  1. The Task

3.1. The contestants are required to build a paper bridge. The width of the gap, the contestants need to bridge is 50 cm and the width of the bridge must be at least 5 cm.

3.2. The load must be transferred into the ground vertically. Supporting the bridge, using the vertical sides of the loading machine’s support beams is not allowed.

3.3. The maximum allowed deflection is 10 cm. If that is exceeded, the loading will be considered finished.

3.3.1. Deflection is measured from the horizontal plane of the loading machine’s bridge support beams to the lowest part of the bridge.

3.4. List of allowed materials:

3.4.1. 50 sheets of copy paper (A4, 80g/m2)

3.4.2. 3 sticks of paper glue (3 x 20g)

3.4.3. an attachment plate for the load

3.5. Tools:

3.5.1. Scissors, a knife, a pencil, a ruler

3.6. Construction

3.6.1. Contestants have 3 astronomical hours to build their bridge.

3.6.2. Contestants are only allowed to use tools and materials assigned by the hosts (found in 3.4. and 3.5).

3.7. Applying the load

3.7.1. The bridge will be placed on the loading device and prepared for loading by the team itself but with no more than 2 people handling the process.

3.7.2. The load will be applied exactly at the center of the gap. The attachment plate must be perpendicular to the bridge and must not extend higher than 5 cm from the support beams of the loading device in an unloaded state.

3.7.3. The loading will be done by one of the team members.

  1. Participants

4.1. This is a team competition. The maximum team size is 3 people.

4.2. Participation in the competition is free.

4.3. There is no set age limit.

4.4. It is recommended for participants to have base knowledge about bridge structures and their functionality.

4.5. Participation is voluntary and at the participant’s own risk. The hosts take no responsibility for possible accidents and their consequences.

  1. Registration

5.1. Registration can be found on BuildIT 2018’s homepage.

5.2. In case of free spots, it will be possible to register to the competition on the spot before the start of the competition.

5.3. By signing up, all participants voluntarily give their consent for the use of all information gathered during the event including pictures and videos made of the participants for marketing purposes by BuildIT.

  1. Judging

6.1. Judging will be based on the maximum load the bridges can tolerate before breaking. The strongest bridge will be the winner.

6.2. If two bridges can carry the same amount of weight, the lightest bridge will be considered the winner from the two.

  1. Awards

7.1 1st to 3rd place recipients will be rewarded.

  1. The Hosts

8.1. Patron of the paper bridge building competition: Merko Ehitus Eesti AS

8.2. Hosting the event: Student Council of the Faculty of Engineering at Tallinn University of Technology

8.3. The jury: Andrus Räämet, Mattias Põldaru

8.4. The lead-referee: Elina Jõpiselg


*The hosts reserve the right to make changes in the competition rules should there be a need to.