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Not Your Average Gingerbread House: SSE Students Craft Hardy Holiday Homes

by Maggie Rotermund
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How do you keep your gingerbread house from crumbling? Teams of students in Saint Louis University’s School of Science and Engineering recently put their engineering skills to work for a December Innovation Challenge. The teams built gingerbread houses designed to stand up during a weight-loading competition.

Teams watch as a gingerbread house crumbles during the SSE Holiday Innovation Challenge Testing on December 8, 2023. Teams were challenged to create gingerbread houses that could withstand weight from sandbags. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
Teams watch as a gingerbread house crumbles during the SSE Holiday Innovation Challenge Testing on December 8, 2023. Teams were challenged to create gingerbread houses that could withstand weight from sandbags. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
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Scott Sell, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, adds weight to a gingerbread house built for SSE's December Innovation Challenge. Photo by Tyler Merkle.
Scott Sell, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, adds weight to a gingerbread house built for SSE's December Innovation Challenge. Photo by Tyler Merkle.
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The winning team of the SSE Holiday Innovation Challenge Testing celebrates on December 8, 2023. Teams were challenged to create gingerbread houses that could withstand weight from sandbags. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
The winning team of the SSE Holiday Innovation Challenge Testing celebrates on December 8, 2023. Teams were challenged to create gingerbread houses that could withstand weight from sandbags. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
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Scott Sell, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, adds weight to a gingerbread house built for SSE's December Innovation Challenge as students look on. Photo by Tyler Merkle.
Scott Sell, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, adds weight to a gingerbread house built for SSE's December Innovation Challenge as students look on. Photo by Tyler Merkle.
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Teams react to a gingerbread house collapse during the SSE Holiday Innovation Challenge Testing on December 8, 2023. Teams were challenged to create gingerbread houses that could withstand weight from sandbags. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
Teams react to a gingerbread house collapse during the SSE Holiday Innovation Challenge Testing on December 8, 2023. Teams were challenged to create gingerbread houses that could withstand weight from sandbags. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
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The remains of a crushed gingerbread house. Photo by Maggie Rotermund.
The remains of a crushed gingerbread house. Photo by Maggie Rotermund.
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Sixteen teams of students spent days building gingerbread houses and eight of those survived to make it to the competition. Each team was given three pre-made kits and a holiday Billiken to use in their design. All houses were required to be edible, created from only the materials in the kit and have a flat roof.

On Friday, Dec. 8, all houses were weight-tested to determine the strongest design. Scott Sell, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and associate dean for undergraduate education in SSE, added sandbags to each house until the structure gave way. Chris Carroll, Ph.D., associate professor of civil engineering, tracked the weight and timed each new addition.

The winning team, WHAM!, built a house that held up under 34 pounds of sand. As Sell ran out of sandbags, Wham!’s house didn’t crumble until Carroll stepped in to put a bit more force on the roof.

The members of the Confection Construction Crew tested their structure with canned goods as they built. Their hospital design, complete with a helipad roof, took second place in the loading competition.

Confection Construction Crew, otherwise known as Saloni Shringarpuree, Ether Darmesh and Riya Sheth, featured two gingerbread novices. Sheth built a house last year.

“It was fun to work together,” Shringarpuree said. “We all had a vision of the final project and it’s been great incorporating all our ideas into the final product.”

The SLU community was also invited to vote on their favorite design ahead of the weight challenge. More than 200 votes were cast for the best-looking house.

Design competition

Winners of the competition received $600 to split equally among the team. Second place winners split a $300 prices. 

Santa's Engineers

First Place in the design category went to Santa’s Engineers - Grace Reed, Olivia King and Benjamin Miller. 

Christmas Chemists

Second Place in the design category was awarded to the Christmas Chemists - Lisa Hang, Kelly Tuong and Ireland Morgan.

Loading competition

Winners of the competition received $600 to split equally among the team. Second place winners split a $300 prices.

Wham!

First Place in the loading competition went to WHAM! - Martin Mazur, Lucas Wadley, Hiram Apo and Aarushi Choudhary. The structure held 34 pounds + ½ of Dr. Carroll.

Christmas Confection Crew

Second Place in the loading competition was awarded to The Confection Construction Crew -Saloni Shringarpuree, Ether Darmesh and Riya Sheth. The Confection Construction Crew’s hospital held 30 pounds.