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by Brian Frye
IT SOUNDS, OF COURSE, LIKE A HOARY JOKE TO say something "floats like a concrete canoe" -- reminiscent of the legendary lead balloon or the screen door on the submarine. It's not, though. Thanks to a combination of technological advances and engineering legerdemain, concrete these days can serve as a cutting-edge maritime material, and the sight of a concrete canoe -- sleek, fast, and finished to a Mercedes gleam -- brooks no argument: This is no joke. The best place to see a concrete canoe is the National Canoe Competition, which attracts some 250 engineering students from 23 colleges and universities each June. The competition was begun informally in the 1960s by student members of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). By the '70s, ASCE was sponsoring regional competitions. But the character of the races changed dramatically in 1988 when Master Builders, a Cleveland-based concrete manufacturer, offered to sponsor a national competition. The company now coordinates the race, covers team expenses, and awards a total of $9,000 in scholarships to the winning teams.
BUT THE REAL POINT ISN'T THE RACE. The competition offers civil engineering students the opportunity to work with a ubiquitous building material. "Fourteen years ago," says Mike Schydlowski, president and CEO of Master Builders, "when we approached ASCE about sponsoring Concrete Canoe, we felt students were graduating from engineering programs with no real experience with concrete. So this was a fun way for us to give students hands-on experience." Christopher Conley, civil engineering professor at the United States Military Academy, agrees. "The students need to come up with a concrete mix design and then figure out how to cast the canoe such that it comes out reasonably close to what they designed," he says. "In addition to solving that open-ended problem with relatively limited time and on a budget, they need to present what they've done, both orally and in a written format. That's just a great learning exercise." The canoes themselves show the fruits of the students' labor. "In the first few years of the competition, teams were racing canoes that weighed about 400 pounds -- they were more like concrete bathtubs," explains Noride Torriente, who serves as communications manager for ASCE. "But in recent years we've had canoes as light as 50 pounds." Concrete consists of cement -- the adhesive -- and an aggregate it binds together, commonly sand. The concrete canoe teams experiment with exotic lightweight aggregates like glass beads and micro-balloons and with admixtures such as Latex, which make the concrete more flexible. As one would expect, these fancy materials aren't cheap. But many of the companies that produce them are happy to supply small quantities free of charge. "Although Master Builders is the corporate sponsor and provides the product free of cost to all of the canoe teams, companies like Dow and 3M also provide materials to most of the canoe teams in the country," says Conley. "In the case of 3M, it's the glass spheres that a lot of people use as aggregate. This year, Hexcel donated Kevlar reinforcement for our team. If I had to put a dollar figure on those things, it would be a big number. Of course, these engineering students are often the companies' future employees. Master Builders, for example, has hired four students in the last five years. Says Schydlowski: "Engineers specify our products, and the competition is a way for us to help develop young engineers. We definitely have our eyes on all attendees in every national. So its very much a recruiting tool for us." According to Houssam Toutanji, professor of civil engineering at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, students from successful teams are often first in line for job offers. "Everybody wants to be associated with a winner," he explains. Technological advances and engineering legerdemain have transformed concrete into a cutting-edge maritime material. But the competition is also a way to showcase engineering departments. "Who drives these students?" asks Toutanji. "The faculty adviser, their department. So winning is indicative of the quality of the faculty adviser, the department, and the university as a whole." The results of this year's competition, held at San Diego State University, are available at: http://www.masterbuilders.com/MB/static/canoe/default.htm. Return to Main |
