NJIT Hosts David Good High School 3D Printed Bridge Competition, Governor Livingston Takes Gold
High school students from across the region brought engineering concepts off the page and into practice at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s David Good 3D Printed Bridge Competition, where high school teams were challenged to design, assemble and test 3D-printed bridges under real performance criteria.
The competition traces its origin to NJIT’s inter-collegiate 3D Printing Competition in November 2021 and is designed to introduce students to the kinds of design, mechanics and problem-solving they may encounter in engineering study and practice. This year’s event asked teams to balance not only strength and stiffness, but also construction efficiency, presentation and design.
“It started off as a high school competition to try to bridge the gap between high school and get these kids ready for what they’re going to see in college,” said Steve George, associate director of undergraduate programs and academic advisor in NJIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), who helped run the event.
George said the competition has grown more sophisticated over time, both in its rules and testing methods and in the level of work students now bring to campus. Many teams now arrive having already run simulations, built prototypes and refined their designs through multiple iterations before competition day.
That growth was visible throughout the day as teams assembled bridges, presented their design thinking and watched their structures tested for load and deflection.
Governor Livingston High School earned first place overall, followed by Morris Knolls High School in second and Wallkill Valley Regional High School in third.
For judge Wei Wang, the event is also about building the next generation of engineers. Wang, who earned his Ph.D. in structural engineering from NJIT, serves on the university’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Industrial Advisory Board, teaches as an adjunct instructor and is founder and CEO of UrbanTech Consulting Engineering.
“This is the best way to inspire young kids,” Wang said. “This is a great way to get them interested in mathematics, mechanics, engineering.”
Wang said one of the clearest signs of the event’s growth has been how much more advanced teams have become in both design and construction. This year, he said, students were not only focused on whether their bridges would hold, but on how efficiently they could be assembled — a reflection of the competition’s accelerated bridge construction theme.
Governor Livingston High School claimed the overall win.
The event also honors the legacy of David Good, the late civil engineering professional and NJIT CEE industrial advisory board member whose passion for engineering helped shape the competition. In his remarks honoring Good, event judge and mentee of Good, Berkay Baykal, recalled Good as the kind of engineer who could make even the technical details of a project feel vivid and exciting to the people around him.
Baykal remembered visiting a deep excavation site in Manhattan with Good and watching him light up as he explained the exposed rock face beneath the city — not as an abstract engineering concept, but as the literal foundation that would support what was built above it. Good’s excitement, Baykal said, was contagious and reflected the curiosity and sense of purpose he brought to the profession. “David’s vision was to give that to younger people … to give that excitement to younger people,” Baykal said.
Load/Weight Efficiency
- Governor Livingston High School
- Morris Knolls High School
- Manalapan High School
Stiffness Efficiency
- Governor Livingston High School
- Morris Knolls High School
- Wallkill Valley Regional High School
Construction Time
- Memorial High School
- Passaic County Technical Vocational School
- Glen Ridge High School
Presentation
- Northern Highlands Regional High School
- Governor Livingston High School
- Morris Knolls High School