Winnipeg, Manitoba
Damien Grayda leads 5-member team to victory
Teodoro ‘Ted’ Alcuitas
Winnipeg engineer Damien Grayda, a Lakehead University graduate, lead his team to a second place victory in the 2022 AISC-ASCE Student Steel Bridge National Finals held last May in Virginia, U.S.A.
Grayda, a 2022 Engineering graduate of Thunder Bay, Ontario’s Lakehead University, lead four of his teammates besting the University of British Columbia who placed 14th.
Grayda’s team was the overall competition winner, being awarded 1st place in seven out of eight scoring categories, placed 11th Overall in the National Finals, with awards for 2nd Place in Lightness and Cost Estimation.
why their bridge came second in lightness. (Photo: Lakehead University)
The competition was held over two days with bridges from 34 North American universities being judged on aesthetics, construction speed, lightness, stiffness, construction economy, structural efficiency, overall performance, and cost estimation.
The team placed 11th overall and brought back two awards: second in lightness and second in cost estimation. Lakehead came first out of the Canadian teams in overall ranking.
“The competition was an amazing way to finish my studies at Lakehead University,” Grayda told the university’s newspaper.
“In all my years of being in post-secondary, this certainly is the accomplishment I am most proud of. My team worked incredibly hard, faced adversity, and overcame many challenges to get where we are,” he said.
“The competition atmosphere is something I would recommend to anyone. Being able to meet students from across North America was unbelievably enlightening. The bonds formed by sharing our ideas, experiences, and challenges made for a weekend I will never forget.”
The son of Leandro and Pura Grayda, the design engineer (EIT) with RJC Engineers in Winnipeg, graduated with First Class Standing and placed on the Dean’s Honour List at Lakehead University Civil Engineering B.Eng Program. He finished his Civil Engineering and Structural engineering at Winnipeg’s Red River College Polytechnic in 2020 graduating with Honours.
Related reading:
The Class of 2022: Grandmother gets her Bachelor’s degree at 73