July 03, 2008

Contact: Amy Hewes
College of Engineering
805-756-6402
ahewes@calpoly.edu

Cal Poly Concrete Canoe Places 4th in the Nation

Cal Poly designed, built and paddled to 4th in the nation at the American Society of Civil Engineers' Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition.

Each year, students from Cal Poly's Society of Civil Engineers (SCE) pit themselves against teams from approximately 220 colleges across the U.S. and Canada in a year-long contest involving design know-how, project management, engineering expertise, oral and written presentations, endurance, imagination and sheer muscle.

Cal Poly's fourth place finish bested its fifth place finish last year. During the event held June 18-21 in Montréal,  the Cal Poly team won 3^rd in Coed Sprints, 3^rd in Men's Sprints, 4^th in Design Paper, and 4^th in Final Product. University of Nevada, Reno captured their first-ever national Concrete Canoe title; University of California, Berkeley came in second and host school, Ecole de technologie superieure was third.
 
"Over the past three days, these intrepid civil engineering students have shown that technical skills combined with an innate sense of creativity can turn a seemingly impossible task into a reality," said ASCE president David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE. "With the innovative thinking we've seen in Montreal, I can't wait to see what's to come from these students in the future as they begin their professional careers."
 
The races, both endurance and sprint combined, counted for only 25 percent of the teams' overall score. The remaining 75 percent was based equally on a technical design paper that highlighted the planning, development, testing and construction of the team's canoe; a formal oral presentation, in which the team had to detail their canoe's design, construction, racing ability and other innovative features, as well as defend their choices to the judges during a question and answer session; and the end product -- the final racing canoe and project display, which were scored on aesthetics and visual presentation.
 
For more information on the National Concrete Canoe Competition, including downloadable high-resolution photos, please visit http://www.concretecanoe.asce.org/.
 
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