"University of Houston"
(20th place overall; 18th in paper; 21st in presentation; 18th in product)

Presentation:

The University of Houston represented the Texas-Mexico Conference and made their fourth national appearance.

Houston relied on 4 people to make their presentation; 2 men and 2 women.  The presenters were dressed in suits and the presentation was business oriented.  The team used 1 screen and did not include any video.

After confirming with the audience that they could hear the team without microphones, Houston began their presentation.  They started by giving details regarding their school and the history of their concrete canoe teams.

Then the team specified their project goals and elaborated on their hull design.  They described the desired attributes of their entry and explained how they worked to achieve them.

Mix design came next.  The team outlined the methods used to establish their critical parameters and explained how these criteria were met.  Then they elaborated on how they integrated their reinforcement while explaining how they overcame the difficulties associated with their build.  Then it was on to management.

The team elaborated on their safety procedures and said that they had more than 50 members involved in the effort.  They explained how they adjusted their scheduled continuously to accommodate the needs of their team members and elaborated on the methods used to recruit and fund raise.  Then they brought their presentation to a strong conclusion.

Questions and Comments:

• What kind of extortion techniques did you employ to recruit so many new members?
• Did you have problems continuously making revisions, for example, with regard to your reinforcement scenario?
• Where did your self consolidating process go astray?
• How did you come up with the name of your canoe?
• Were the 325 man hours listed in your schedule correct?
• What problems did you see with metakaolin?
• What quality control procedures did your team employ?
• Who supervised these efforts?

 Product:

Houston fielded "Streaming Buffalo."
Length: 20'
Weight: 264 lb
Color: red and white

The team employed one layer of wire mesh and pre-stressed cables to reinforce their hull and met the sieve requirement by using expanded clay and shale, extendospheres, and K-25 glass bubbles.  They employed different size tendons in different sections to reinforce the hull. 

Vital Statistics