Bridging Troubled Waters: The Utah team, their trophy, and BAMBI.
The engineering students at Utah State University have come up with a backpack-portable bridge that recently captured first place in the Air Force Research Laboratory Design Challenge.
It’s designed to let military personnel cross streams, minefields or other danger zones. The carbon-fiber bridge breaks down into six pieces and stretches to 20 feet.
Like most nifty military gear, it meets three key criteria:
— It’s light – only 27 pounds — but can carry up to 350 pounds.
— It has a neat acronym: BAMBI, for Break-Apart Mobile Bridging and Infiltration (must have got an English major involved there).
— “We found that the more simple the design was, the better it became,” student Tasha Davis says.
See it in action here: