MSOE students take on the Leaning Tower of Pisa

By Third Coast Daily - May 26th, 2011 04:00 am

All photos by Nickolas Nikolic

On Wednesday morning, a group of ten engineering students from MSOE put the finishing touches on a five-foot-tall replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa — made entirely out of Legos. Weighing in at 150 pounds, the tower uses 17,700 individual Lego pieces.

Led by student Justin Cosgrove, the project began in February and took 90 days and 130 hours to complete. Students said the biggest challenge of their tower was the introduction of the lean itself, which employs a steel and wood truss in the center of the tower for support.

In July, the life-like tower will be transported to Henry Maier Festival Park as part of Festa Italiana’s Piazza di LEGO, a new area on the festival grounds where children of all ages are welcome to participate in a daily Lego building contest. Student volunteers from MSOE and the American Institute of Architects – Milwaukee will be there to assist the children with their constructions and teach them about what engineers do as a career.

The list of students (not all present at the press conference) that worked on the project are as follows:

Justin Cosgrove – Project Leader – Architectural Engineering Junior
Jessica Phillips – Architectural Engineering Junior
Kyle Welsh – Architectural Engineering Junior
Sam Pekarscik – Architectural Engineering Junior
Elise Pinkerton – Architectural Engineering Junior
Kaylie Lenz – Architectural Engineering Junior
Hunter Day – Electrical Engineering Junior
Marlon Petty – Electrical Engineering Junior
Jessica Iverson – Architectural Engineering Junior
Adam Jablonski – Architectural Engineering Freshman

TCD photo assistant Nickolas Nikolic was at the Kern Center while these talented students carefully applied the final pieces. Check out a photo gallery below.

Categories: Life & Leisure

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