It’s that time of year again: the 36th annual Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest is just around the corner.
Okanagan College’s premier event, which begins on March 1, is proud to call itself the oldest and most famous spaghetti bridge-building competition in the whole world.
While about 34 similar contests compete with it around the globe – from Budapest to Buenos Aires – Okanagan College reigns supreme.
The record for the best bridge belongs to Hungarian designers Norbert Pozsonyi and Aliz Totivan of the Szechenyi Istvan University of Gyor.
Their bridge, which weighted 982 grams, held a weight of 443.58 kilograms before collapsing.
There are 11 teams taking part in the heavyweight category of the competition this year, with first place having a $1,500 prize attached to it.
The heavyweight contest will begin at about noon in the theatre on the college’s Kelowna campus.
The lightweight competition will begin at about 10:30 a.m.
Tim McLennan, director of design and operations at Faction Projects (which is the title sponsor of the contest), said the competition is “a great way to introduce hundreds of students annually to the interplay between materials, physics and engineering”.
“This event looks like it’s about fun with pasta, but it’s so much more than that,” he said.
He added: “We need to invest in and support ways to interest the next generation of builders and doers in arts, science, technology, engineering and math – and if the mediums in use are pasta, glue and imagination, that works.
“As an architect, I’ve been amazed over the years at how well some of the bridges have performed, but even more important to me is seeing the number of elementary, middle and high school students who participate. My son should take notes!”
