Structurally Sound: Two Gingerbread Houses Built by SSE Students Hold Up Under 100-Plus Pounds of Weight
Maggie Rotermund
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maggie.rotermund@slu.edu
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Teams of students, faculty and staff in Saint Louis University’s School of Science and Engineering put their engineering skills to work for a December Innovation Challenge, building gingerbread houses designed to stand up during a weight-loading competition.
Teams of students, faculty and staff spent days building gingerbread houses. Each team was given three pre-made kits and a holiday Billiken to use in their design. All houses were required to be edible, created from only the materials in the kit and have a flat roof.
On Friday, Dec. 5, all houses were weight-tested to determine the strongest design. After multiple houses withstood 40 pounds in 2024, organizers came prepared with more than 100 pounds of weights and sandbags to test this year's houses.
Scott Sell, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and associate dean for undergraduate education in SSE, added weights and sandbags to each house until the structure gave way.
Two teams tied for first place in the strongest design category. The Gingeneers, comprised of Irmak Gokcen, Alex Blickhan and Esha Pattan, and the Gingerholics, comprised of August Russell, Katie Pekic, Leticia Pacheco, Casey Roberts and Jenny Seon, each built houses which withstood 105 pounds without collapsing.
The Ginger Grinders, made up of Jack Corey, Ta My Tuyet Doanh and Hamad Saied, won the best design award. Ginger AI, made up of Khevna Vadaliya, Smit Patel, Shubham Limbachiya and Darshil Prajapati, was the runner-up.
Winners received a cash price to split among the team. All entries were weight-tested, but those that didn't meet the project specifications were not considered for awards.