The Los Angeles Department of Public Works announced Wednesday that teams from Arleta High School and Los Angeles High School were declared the winners of this year’s Regional Bridge Building Contest.

Eleven teams comprised of 21 students from a half-dozen Los Angeles Unified School District high schools competed in the contest, which was held Tuesday at the Grace E. Simons Lodge in Elysian Park and sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Engineering and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“The annual bridge contest is great way to help students experience how fun and interesting engineering can be,” Los Angeles City Engineer Gary Lee Moore said. “Students are inspired to find new ways to use their math and science classes, and our staff has a chance to mentor a whole new generation of potential engineers. It’s a great program and one we are strongly committed to.”

The contest, which was developed by the International Bridge Building Committee in Chicago, requires students to design, construct and test the most efficient bridge designs they can build within designated specifications. The Bureau of Engineering provides professional engineers to act as mentors to the students.

The contest is designed to encourage more students — particularly females and minorities — to consider careers in engineering.

The captains of the two winning teams in the Efficiency category, Arleta High School and Los Angeles High School, will go on to represent the Los Angeles area in the International Bridge Building Contest in Baltimore in April, and the captain of the winning team in Baltimore will get a half scholarship to the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Medals were also awarded for Architectural Merit, which included winning teams from Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet, Los Angeles High School and the STEM Academy of Hollywood, as well as Engineering/Design, which included winning teams from Arleta High School, Rover H. Lewis High School and the STEM Academy of Hollywood.

>> Want to read more stories like this? Get our Free Daily Newsletters Here!