Notre Dame Regional Secondary’s Physics Balsa Bridge Building Contest will celebrate its 45th annual competition on May 21. Started with a budget of $20 for the 1981 school year, the competition has run every year since — even during the pandemic — and has tested nearly 2,000 bridges over that time.

Despite its long history, the contest’s rules have remained unchanged: students must build a bridge using specific, commonly available balsa wood and glue, meeting strict span and dimension requirements, and not exceeding a total mass of 100.0 grams.

In 2021, Emmanuel Padilla won with a bridge that held 158.9 kg — roughly 1,600 times its own mass. Fewer than one per cent of all bridges tested over the decades have held more than 158 kg, placing Padilla’s bridge in the top 20 of all time. He also became the inaugural recipient of a co-op placement from long-time sponsor McElhanney, a historic B.C. engineering firm.

That achievement was surpassed in 2022 when student Wesley Ko broke a record that had stood since 2011. His bridge held 291.4 kg (642 pounds). Ko will also be eligible for a co-op placement with McElhanney.

The 2023 winner, Adriano Pizzolato, continued a family tradition: his father won the contest in 1987, and his brothers built the top bridges in 2018 and 2019. Last year’s winning bridge, built by Mattias Lovison, held 141.15 kg.

In recent years, the contest has been supported by two marquee sponsors: Engineers and Geoscientists BC (EGBC, formerly APEGBC) and the Notre Dame Alumni Foundation. There is a special connection between the two — EGBC’s current president and CEO, Heidi Yang, is a Notre Dame and Balsa Bridge contest alumna. She still has her original bridge on display.

Over the years, other sponsors have included FortisBC, McCarthy Properties, UBC Engineering, BCIT, Microsoft, SRC Engineering, COWI, Woldring & Associates, Dynamic Structures, Kiewit-Flatiron, KPU, WSP, and CKNW. New sponsors for the 45th anniversary include FormTec Group and the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies Canada–B.C. Section (ACEC-BC).

Funding supports contest operations, prizes, and student scholarships. In recent years, more than a dozen scholarships have been awarded annually to students continuing in advanced mathematics, physics, and engineering. Awards are given to Grade 11 students moving on to Physics 12, and to Grade 12 students entering post-secondary engineering programs. Around $5,000 is awarded each year in scholarships and prizes.

One highlight from last year was the return of alumnus Joe Klarich — not only to help run the contest but also to sponsor it through his firm, J. Klarich Consulting Engineers Inc. While studying engineering at USC San Diego, Klarich noted that one of his courses required students to build a bridge following the same rules and guidance as Notre Dame’s contest — sourced directly from its website.

That website, balsabridge.com, is one of Canada’s oldest education-related domains and continues to raise the contest’s profile. Sponsors are recognized in multiple ways: on contest T-shirts, live broadcast coverage, a special sponsor print publication, student handouts, the contest website, and across social media platforms including X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Since its first year, the contest has received honours from the Prime Minister’s Office (Prime Minister’s Award for Science and Technology), the Premier of B.C. (Award for Teaching Excellence), and EGBC.

The contest, which started in such a modest way, is now theatrically staged in the school’s Father Joe Cuddy Auditorium. 

In 2011, contest founder Peter Vogel was chosen as the inaugural Canadian representative to the CERN physics teacher program at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Vogel is now retired and the event is coordinated by his longtime colleague Sonia Prasad, along with Clement Law.
 

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