Photo by Debbie Aldridge/UC Davis

A combination of good design and quick assembly helped UC Davis’ Team Chrome-Ollie win the 2005 National Student Steel Bridge Competition. At the Memorial Day weekend event in Orlando, Fla., the Aggie team put together its 21.5-foot-long bridge in just 3:38 minutes.

The secret to the team’s success, according to members, boiled down to about 3,000-person hours of advance planning, designing and practicing—and a minimum of bolts. Their one-tenth scale model required 28 bolts, while other teams averaged about 40.

A combination of factors—aesthetics, lightness, stiffness, construction speed, construction economy, structural efficiency and bridge depth—earned UC Davis first place out of 44 teams.

Getting the 171 pounds of steel parts plus tools to Florida was a challenge in itself. Team members built aluminum boxes, with more than 100 rivets in the lids, carefully packed their bridge pieces and watched to make sure they were loaded on the plane.

The UC Davis team’s name is a pun: The bridge was made from high-strength chromium/molybdenum alloy steel, or chrome-moly for short. The Aggies mustang mascot was once nicknamed Ollie. Voilá, Team Chrome-Ollie.

This is the second year in a row that the UC Davis team reached the national finals; in 2004, the team placed fifth. With some members graduating, the team immediately began recruiting for 2006.

Hi ho Ollie, away!

ENTER THE DAVIS DRAGONS

Thanks to the enthusiasm of student organizers and crew, UC Davis now has representation in the fast-growing sport of dragon boat racing.

The Davis Racing Dragons practice their strokes from the sides of Davis pools during the week, then carpool on weekends to Alameda to paddle a 20-person boat with a dragon head at the bow and tail on the stern.

Jeremy Wong, an aeronautical and mechanical engineering senior who co-founded the team in June 2004, started racing dragon boats when he was a high school student in San Francisco. But he said most of the other Davis Racing Dragons are new to the sport.

Wong, who steers and coaches, said novices quickly become passionate about the sport. He said dragon boat racing, which derives from a traditional Chinese summer festival, is a healthy, safe outdoor sport where every teammate matters equally. “You depend on your teammates just asmuch as they depend on you.”

The team has competed in races in the San Francisco Bay Area and Long Beach. Fortunately, they don’t have to bring their own boats, which weigh up to 1,200 pounds and measure about 40 feet long.

WHINE AND CHEESE

Taste can be a touchy subject, as UC Davis sensory scientist Hildegarde Heymann, M.S. ’80, Ph.D. ’86, well knows.

Heymann and former graduate student Berenice Madrigal, M.S. ’05, recently conducted a study that suggests that eating cheese with red wine diminishes, rather than enhances, the wine flavors. After newspapers reported on the findings, Heymann received some angry e-mail messages from wine and cheese fans.

Heymann says the e-mail writers calmed down after she explained that her interests are scientific: She just wants to know how food-wine pairings affect sensory perceptions. “There was no value judgment here,” she said. “My feeling is you should choose the food you love and the wine youlove, and they’re going to go together.”

While many books, articles and wine labels make recommendations on matching foods and wine, Heymann said she found only a few scientific publications on the subject.

But she has no shortage of volunteer tasters for future studies; her next will focus on how salad dressings interact with wine. And she frequently gets suggestions for prospective volunteers for research on wine paired with chocolate.

SO LITTLE TIME

If you ever felt unprepared for your classes as a student, take heart: You were not alone.

A recent survey at UC Davis found that only one in four undergraduate students felt they devoted enough time to their studies. Most had trouble keeping up with all that reading. On the other hand, about 40 percent of students surveyed said they had a course so interesting that they did extra work.

COHO COOKING

The last time the Coffeehouse printed a cookbook was 1996, and that second edition has long since gone out of print. But hope glistens for Tatro cookie fans who want to bake their own. Coffeehouse director Sharon Coulson plans to publish a new recipe book, perhaps as early as 2006.

Used copies of UC Davis’ Coffeehouse Cookbook go fast, if you can find any. Only about 3,000 paperbacks were printed in 1996. Coulson said she heard of one recently offered on eBay for $30.

“Buy, beg or borrow a copy of this fabulous cookbook of casual comfort food with an international touch,” encouraged one Web journal writer, who bought the book when her oldest daughter attended UC Davis.

As a sneak preview, Coulson provided the recipe for Ecstasy Bars.