Civil Engineering Students from Polytechnic-UFRJ Take 2nd Place in Brazilian Steel Construction Center (CBCA) Contest

The Minerva Civil team has just won the silver medal in the overall ranking of the 2nd Brazilian Steel Construction Center (CBCA) Contest, which had the theme “Second Bridge between Brazil and Paraguay.” It is the first time the team, made up of Civil Engineering students from the Polytechnic School of UFRJ and Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at UFRJ, has placed among the top three finalists. The gold medal went to the team from the Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys, and the bronze to the team from Mauá Institute of Technology. All tests were conducted remotely, following the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the CBCA contest, under the general guidance of Professor Michèle Schubert Pfeil, knowledge of steel structures was put to the test. The team of future engineers and architects secured 2nd place by proposing a triple cantilever arch bridge and was praised by the panel of architects and engineers for the idea of placing the pedestrian walkway below the deck. “The team had to compile all the knowledge gained in the classroom, seek specific knowledge that we did not have, and apply both in such an interdisciplinary project,” said student Murillo Queiroz, from the 7th semester.

In addition to the CBCA, the team participated in two other competitions this year. In the Ousadia contest, the challenge was to develop a basic project for an urban park, a building, and a pier in the municipality of Florianópolis. The project was deemed the second best. “We tried to create something that could bring a sense of belonging while at the same time embodying the audacity for change that the project demands. Thus, we altered the standard way of viewing such equipment,” highlighted Rebecca Muzy, from the 9th semester of Civil Engineering.

In the third competition, the Concregame, in a quiz format with concrete technology as the theme, the team achieved 4th place. “The major difficulty was studying everything that involves this theme in a short period of about a month between the announcement of the regulations and the date of the rounds. The team exchanged knowledge among themselves with materials produced by each pair, including: summaries, mind maps, questions and answers, spreadsheets, and others. Thus, the team fully covered the curriculum of the contest, becoming capable of answering the quiz questions posed,” explained Anna Carolina Gomes, from the 5th semester.

According to the students, the social distancing caused by the new coronavirus pandemic forced them to adopt strategies to achieve good results in the competition. “We needed to solve problems in completely distinct areas with knowledge that we did not yet have access to. Moreover, we faced the challenge of organizing and managing a huge project with a team on a scale we had never worked on before. These were intriguing and interesting challenges we expected to face, but the losses and isolation that arose during the pandemic were challenges we did not anticipate and that brought a lot of difficulty to the entire team,” evaluated 8th-semester student Polyanna Domingues.

Below is a list of the students who represented the UFRJ team in each competition:

CBCA Competition – Lucas Muniz Valani, Polyanna Pascoal de Sousa Domingues, Murillo Melo Rodrigues Queiroz, Ronan de Oliveira Pereira Bezerra, Lucas Araujo Felicio dos Santos, and Suzana Dias de Sá Fernandez.

Ousadia Competition – Alberto Figueiredo de Freitas Guimarães, Alice Maria Costa Silva; Anna Carolina dos Santos Gomes, Berta Clara dos Santos Costa, Daniele Corrêa da Conceição Galdino, Gabriel Nakalski Farias, Izabela de Sousa Moura, Jefferson Pereira Silvestre, João Paulo Guilhon de Araújo Périssé, Jonas da Silva Chaves, Julia Acosta Silva, Lucas Araujo Felicio dos Santos, Lucas Muniz Valani, Lucas Ribeiro Sampaio, Matheus Raymundo de Oliveira; Murillo Melo Rodrigues Queiroz; Nicolas Nascimento da Cruz; Nyvea de Souza Innocencio, Pedro Henrique Carneiro Lins Coutinho, Pedro Henrique Melo Siqueira, Pedro Motta de Paola Bortolotti, Polyanna Pascoal de Sousa Domingues, Rafael Silva Abreu, Raquel Duarte de Almeida, Rebecca Muzy dos Santos, Ronan Oliveira Pereira Bezerra, Samara Ferreira Costa, Vinícius Marques Augusto, and Yan de Azevedo Monteiro.

Concregame Competition – Nícolas Nascimento da Cruz, Anna Carolina dos Santos Gomes, Yan de Azevedo Monteiro, Gabriel Nakalski Farias, Lucas Ribeiro Sampaio, Paula Noronha, Raquel Duarte, Karenn Magalhães, and Mayara Leal.