"University of Oklahoma"
(7th place overall; 4th in paper; 5th in presentation; 10th in product)

Presentation:

University of Oklahoma represented the Mid-Continent Conference and made their sixth national appearance.

Oklahoma relied on 4 people to make their presentation; 3 men and 1 woman.  The presenters were dressed in casual attire and the presentation was business oriented.  The team used 1 screen and did not include any video.

The team began by outlining the theme developed for their project.  Then they elaborated on their hull design and the techniques employed to improve it over last year.  Specifics regarding hydrodynamics were given.

Then it was on to structural analysis.  The team presented the critical loading and explained how they developed a critical moment diagram.

They mentioned how they saved time during mold constructing and elaborated on the construction techniques.  During this segment, the team described how they constructed their inlays.  They went on the outline the innovative features of their product and elaborated on them.

The team supplemented their technical delivery with technical specifications and mechanical properties and described how these parameters related to the salient features of their design.  They presented details and showed some very elaborate charts developed to verify their analysis.

After saying that they tested 132 different mixes to meet their goals, the team concluded by saying that they were very proud of their efforts.

Questions and Comments:  

• Who came up with the rational behind your mix design?
• How long did you pre-soak your aggregates?
• Can you elaborate on when you placed your reinforcement strands into the canoe during the construction process?
• How did you do it?
• Did you have a paddling coach?
• How did you select your paddling team?
• Did you do any large scale construction to verify that your type-K cement and aggregate composition would work?
• Did you consider using a shrinkage reducing admixture?
• How did you determine the need for mechanically activated fly ash?
• In addition to the internal curing, did you do anything to cure the canoe externally?
• Do you consider the internal inlay structurally?
• Were you concerned with the inlay’s structural and bonding properties?
• Was all external finishing done by hand?

Note: Overall, Oklahoma did a nice job of outlining their project while providing a great many technical details.

 Product:

   The University of Oklahoma fielded "Centennial."
Length: 19' 7"
Weight: 215 lb
Color: crimson, cream, and black

The team employed one layer of fiberglass to reinforce their hull and met the sieve requirement by using Poraer siscorspheres, microspheres, glass beads, and expanded shale.  They post-tensioned the gunwale by using stainless steel strands.

Vital Statistics