PLEASANTON, Calif. — Simpson Strong-Tie is sponsoring The Tech Challenge 2015, an annual team design challenge for children in grades 4-12 presented by The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif., from Jan.1 to April 26, 2015. The Tech Challenge introduces and reinforces the science and engineering design process with a hands-on project geared toward solving a real-world problem.

The Tech Challenge 2015 invites teams to build a scaled structure that supports live load and is earthquake safe. The structures will be placed on a test rig for a series of three 20-second simulated earthquakes. In between each earthquake simulation, the teams will have one minute to repair the structure to help ensure it survives the remaining earthquakes.

Teams will be judgedon creativity, thought process, design and construction, teamwork, documentation and adherence to the spirit of the challenge.

“The Tech Challenge 2015 is a great forum for educating students and the general public about the importance of building safe, strong structures. Simpson Strong-Tie is committed to doing just that with our structural building products. We’re happy to support The Tech as an Underwriting Sponsor of this event,” said Jeremy Gilstrap, vice president of engineering at Simpson Strong-Tie.

“The Tech is grateful to Simpson Strong-Tie for its support of The Tech Challenge and our mission of inspiring the innovator in everyone,” says Tim Ritchie, president and CEO of The Tech. “We hope the kids learning about seismic engineering in this year’s competition decide to pursue STEM careers and go on to make the world a better, safer place through technology and innovation.”

 For more information, visit www.strongtie.com.