On 9 December 2016, civil engineering students represented Purdue in the 10th International Bridge Contest. The team consisted of undergraduate students Daixi Yang, Sijia Wang, Ziyu Liu, Cheng Qian, Scott Houldieson (not pictured), and graduate students Aishwarya Puranam and William Pollalis. Support for the team was provided by Prof. Santiago Pujol and his post-doc, Lucas Laughery.

Purdue competed against 12 teams from universities in the U.S. (Uni. of California-San Diego, Uni. of Nebraska-Lincoln), Japan (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Tohoku Uni., Kyushu Sangyo Uni., Yokohama Uni.), Mexico (Uni. Panamericana), Colombia (Uni. Nacional, Uni. de Los Andes), Chile (Uni. de Los Andes), Peru (Pontificia Uni. Catolica) and Turkey (Izmir Institute of Technology).

The competition was conceived in 2007 by Prof. Toshikatsu Ichinose from Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan. This year, teams were tasked with building a paper bridge that spanned 1 meter and weighed less than 100 grams. At mid-span, the bridge was required to have a clearance of 20-cm. Purdue took first place in the competition with a bridge that carried 20.6 kg. This is the sixth time in the last seven years Purdue has placed first in the competition.