On March 3, 2017, final project defense of civil engineering in University of Western Ontario, named City of London Design Competition, was held. There were 14 teams and nearly 80 people that took part in the competition.

Three exchange students, Liu Ziyang, Xie Zihong and Yang Kaiyue, from the South China University of Technology, School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, had remarkable performance. Liu Ziyang got the third prize for his design project “the steel footbridge”.

Figure 1. Liu Ziyang and his teammates took photo on site

Figure 2. Yang Kaiyue and his teammates took photo on site

Figure 3. Poster for the bridge designed by Xie Zihong and his teammates

City of London Design Competition, funded by the government of London city, Canada, is an opening design competition mentored by experts for civil engineering students from University of Western Ontario. The contest topics this year included multiple-purpose footbridge design, tunnel design for city public transportation, sewage treatment plant renovation and expansion design, storm water management LID system design and etc.

Optimized design for half years, every piece of work had their own distinction and creation. In multiple-purpose footbridge design topic, there were arch bridge, suspension bridge, truss bridge and other structure types of bridges. Highly recycled aluminum, prefabricated glass fiber polymer plate, conventional steel and other materials were applied. In tunnel design topic, the open cut method, the mining method and other novel construction methods were applied. In City of London Design Competition, participators exchanged various of ideas and got benefit. After competition, the organizers held a dinner party at The Wave for the participating students.

Figure 4. Exchange Students took photo with professors

This graduation project gave full play to the creativity of the students, made them a better understanding of the design and provided students with the opportunity for learning and communication. Let us hope the next exchange students achieve success as well. (Editor: Mu He-Qing, Zheng Zeng-Jie)