June 2023
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The Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, SAMPE, is a professional organization that promotes the development of the research of materials and their manufacturing. One of their major areas of interest is composite technology. Every year SAMPE hosts a Student Bridge competition which allows students to explore the application of composites and their productions. Multiple Union College students entered this competition in the past and this was continued in 2023. Focusing on weight reduction while maintaining high strength, a fully stressed beam compose of light weight popular wood and flax fiber pre-preg was designed and manufactured. The poplar, flax combination was created to achieve weight reduction from previous designs while withstanding the design load of 2400 lbs.