The Steel Bridge team, from the Civil Engineering and Surveying Department (INCI) of the University of Mayagüez Campus (RUM), won first place overall at the Canadian National Steel Bridge Competition (CNSBC), an event held at Western Ontario University in Canada. 

The collegiate group, composed of 14 students, achieved first place in the following categories: Lightness, Construction Economy, Cost Estimate, Construction Speed, and Circular Engineering. It also took third place in the Aesthetics category. 

Prior to this first place, the students obtained third place in the regional competitions of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which allowed them to qualify for the U.S. national competitions for the ninth consecutive year. 

Clara E. Isaza Brando and Mauricio Cabrera Ríos, Ph.D., from the Departments of Biology and Industrial Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Mayagüez Campus (RUM), are team members of the EMBRIO Institute, a multidisciplinary and collaborative project with U.S. universities, funded with $12.5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF), whose objective is to identify how cells organize themselves to fight attack and ensure their ability to survive at scales ranging from single cell to cell responses to tissue and wound closure.