National Concrete Canoe Competition Sets Sail for University of Alabama

A Case of Think or Swim
National Concrete Canoe Competition Sets Sail for University of Alabama

Reston, Va.—Concrete is not the material the average person thinks of when they decide to build a racing canoe. But the again, these students aren’t average people! Hundreds of civil engineering students will trek to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa June 11-13, 2009 for their chance at the “America’s Cup of Civil Engineering”, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ National Concrete Canoe Competition.

Throughout the year, more than 250 teams of civil engineering students log thousands of hours researching, designing and constructing their concrete canoes in the hopes of finding the winning combination of knowledge and teamwork. And after competing in their regional competitions, the best of the best will set sail for the national event in Tuscaloosa.

“Today’s civil engineering students will be the ones to solve our nation’s water, transportation and other infrastructure problems,” said ASCE President D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE. “Solving those challenges in the future will take the same kind of ingenuity and creativity that the Concrete Canoe Competition is teaching them today.”

The competition is comprised of both academic and race events. Each team’s total score is based on the engineering design and construction principles used in the creation of the canoe. Scoring for the competition is divided into four components: Design Paper (25 percent); Oral Presentation (25 percent); Final Product (25 percent); and in five different races – men’s and women’s slalom/endurance races and men’s, women’s and co-ed sprint races which accounts for the final 25 percent of the team’s score. The teams are competing for academic scholarship awards.

For more information on the National Concrete Canoe Competition, including downloadable high-resolution photos, please visit: http://content.asce.org/conferences/nccc2009/index.html.

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 146,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.