Saint Louis University’s Building Engineering Awareness in Metro Saint Louis Schools Competition — or Billiken BEAMS — is a group-based project opportunity in which students compete in teams to design and build road-based bridges out of balsa wood.
Billiken BEAMS is hosted by SLU's student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Saint Louis University. It is open to high school students in the metropolitan St. Louis area.
The object of the competition is to see who can design, construct and test the most efficient road bridge. Efficiency is calculated as the load supported in pounds divided by the weight of the bridge in pounds.
Teams design a bridge to meet the competition specifications and create a computer model of the bridge with the help of civil engineering faculty and students. The materials to construct the bridge are provided to the teams after registration. The teams then have until the bridge drop-off date to construct the bridge.
For more information, contact the Billiken BEAMS team at billikenbeams@slu.edu.
In order to compete, students should form teams of one to four members and register using the online registration form.
Each team must designate a primary team contact who will complete the registration and process payment for the entire team. The primary team contact is usually an advisor, teacher or parent who will lead the group. Do not register team members individually.
Registration is open to the first 32 student groups who sign-up on a first come, first registered basis.
2022-23 Dates
- December 7: Registration Opens
- January 6: Priority registration deadline
- January 27: Registration closes at 5 p.m.
- December 12 - February 3 (By Appointment): Bridge materials pickup at School of Science and Engineering
- February 11: Competition Questions Deadline
- February 18: Bridge reports due by 11:59 p.m.
- February 25: Billiken BEAMS competition. Teams check in at 9a.m.
The registration fee is $30 per team before January 6 and $40 per team after that date. The registration fee covers all bridge construction materials, operating costs and participation in the competition. Payment can be submitted online using SLU Marketplace.
Awards will be given to the top two teams, which are determined based on the total points earned during the evaluation process. Below are the categories and maximum points available for each category to be used in the evaluation of the bridges:
- 25%: Maximum Load Supported
- 25%: Strength-to-Weight Ratio
- 15%: Bridge Specifications
- 15%: Project Report
- 10%: Aesthetics
- 10%: Trivia
Total equals a possible 100%