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The University of Akron hosted area high school students on Friday, as they competed in the 16th Annual Bridge Building Competition.

Students put their engineering skills on display for local engineering consulting firms to judge the aesthetics, or looks, of their bridge and the amount of weight it can hold.

Alan Brubaker, Summit County Engineer, and 16 engineering consulting firms co-sponsored the annual event.

Brubaker said the event has got bigger every year with this year being the biggest.

"Whenever you have a good program that the student advisers feel that is beneficial to the students, it's going to continue to grow."

The students were given three hours to build their bridge The teams built their bridges out of balsa wood and then went their imagination.

Andrew McDonald, a sophomore from Hudson high school, and his teammates took home the first place trophy in their first year competing.

"Coming out here and just seeing our philosophy and design work, it's a very satisfying and just fulfilling experience," McDonald said.

When asked about some of the best parts about the competition, Sam Phillips, senior from Green and Portage Lakes Center, said it was really cool to see students from other schools and to see some of the differences in their bridge designs.

"Meeting new kids from like Hudson, Springfield and another class of schools that you don't really get to see people from and to see what they're thinking and what's they're out-take on this whole perception of building a bridge out of balsa wood."

Students who participated in the event were eligible to receive more than $4,000, as part of the Miniature Bridge Building Competition Scholarship.

Hudson high school won a prize of $100 and two Springfield high school teams brought home a prize of $70 and $50 each for second and third place finishes.

The Portage Lakes Center won the aesthetics award for the best bridge design. Cuyahoga Falls finished in second place.