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May 9, 2002

Electronic newsroom

02-37

  

Huntington High School Student Wins Brookhaven Lab’s Model Bridge Contest

UPTON, NY — Huntington High School student John Cornwell (kneeling, left) is a two-time winner of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s 2002 Model Bridge Contest. The contest had two categories for testing bridges using a device called a stress tester. In one category, unlimited weight was exerted on the model bridge to break it, and in the other, up to 50 kilograms of weight was used to test the bridge. In both tests, Cornwell’s 14.3-gram bridge placed first, holding 101.8 pounds, or 3,228 times its own weight.

2002 Bridge Contest Winners

Joining Cornwell and Brookhaven National Laboratory Interim Director Peter Paul are the other winners: Mike Eckardt, Patchogue-Medford High School (kneeling, right); and (top row, from left) Dane Kouttron, Huntington High School; Kevin McKeon, Center Moriches High School; winner of the aesthetic award for best-looking bridge, Christine Ahn, Ward Melville High School; and Adam Schardine, Center Moriches High School.  (Hi-res version of image, 695 kB jpeg.)

All the winning students received gift certificates to Barnes & Noble, and the three top winners — Cornwell, McKeon and Eckardt — were sent to the 2002 International Bridge Building Contest in Bellingham, Washington, with their round-trip airfare paid by Brookhaven Science Associates, the organization that manages the Laboratory. Out of 68 contestants in the international contest, Cornell placed tenth, McKeon came in fourteenth, and Eckhart placed sixteenth. Jared Szajkowski from Alaska placed first, and won a half-tuition scholarship to the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies. Brookhaven also builds and operates major facilities available to university, industrial, and government scientists. The Laboratory is managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited liability company founded by Stony Brook University and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.