BridgeValley Community and Technical College Story Archives - Page 2 of 2

Officials to Reveal Cause of February Train Derailment in W.Va.

The Federal Railroad Administration is set to announce what caused a fiery oil train derailment in southern West Virginia in February.

The agency has scheduled a news conference Friday morning at BridgeValley Community and Technical College in Montgomery.

A CSX train carrying 3 million gallons of Bakken crude derailed in the town of Mount Carbon during a Feb. 16 snowstorm.

Twenty-seven of the train’s 109 cars derailed. Twenty cars leaked crude oil.

The derailment shot fireballs into the sky, burned down a nearby house and caused fires on the ground that smoldered for days.

The owner of the destroyed home was treated for inhalation injuries. No one else in the area was hurt.

Speed had previously been ruled out as a factor.

BridgeValley CTC and WVU Tech to Sign Agreement

BridgeValley Community and Technical College and WVU Tech will sign an agreement this week establishing multiple associate-to-bachelor degree educational pathways.

Under the agreement, officials say students who complete an eligible associate degree program at BridgeValley in South Charleston will be able to seamlessly transition into a bachelor’s program at WVU Tech.

The pathway programs outlined in the agreement will include Accounting, Finance, Management, Business, Marketing, Criminal Justice, Healthcare Management, Health Services Administration, Paralegal Studies and Public Service Administration. The agreement will be signed at a ceremony at WVU Tech in Montgomery on Thursday.

Amateur Engineers Compete to Build Best Bridge

Teams of high school and middle school students gathered in South Charleston over the weekend to compete to design the best virtual bridge.

BridgeValley Community and Technical College hosted the West Virginia Design Contest at the Advanced Technology Center in South Charleston. Thirty-nine high school and middle school teams entered the competition for a chance to win nearly $7,000.

It’s really fun to be innovative and be put on the spot to do what you can and see how well you perform under pressure and to compete against other intellectuals that enjoy designing and the whole aspect and concept of engineering and it’s really fun to be in that environment with people that like the same thing as you. – Thomas Meadows, 12th Grader, Princeton

Thomas Meadows and his partner were just two of the more than 400 middle and high school students who submitted more than two hundred fifty virtual bridge designs. From those 39 different teams competed in the state finals.

Using computer software the teams were presented with different real life scenarios, each lasting around an hour. Using the software, they were to build a virtual bridge they thought would hold up in the given scenario. The teams were charged with building the most economical bridge possible.

The students were updated of their scoring progress throughout the time session. Each teamm had detailed instruction what they could do to build the bridge.

Six of the high school teams from West Virginia and three middle school teams will go on to compete in the national finals in July.

BridgeValley CTC to Host Bridge Design Contest

BridgeValley Community and Technical College will host the West Virginia Bridge Design Contest Saturday.

The contest at the BridgeValley Advanced Technology Center in South Charleston will host 39-teams of amateur engineers competing in the West Virginia Bridge Design Contest. The teams will vie for awards totaling close to $7,000 in cash.

Each team will design a virtual bridge and then test its limits with software on a large video screen in the school’s technology center. Over 400 middle and high school students submitted more than 250 virtual bridge designs.

Six high school and three middle school teams from the state are ranked in the national semi-final round and are competing to participate in the national finals in July.