Canoeing is a pastime usually reserved for avid boaters, fisherman and campers.
But for about 25 engineering students, canoeing means a quest to prove boats made of concrete can really float - and race.
“You can pretty much design anything so it does float,” said Kirk Wolf, a civil engineering junior. “We use glass bubbles in the mixture that won’t soak up water.”
Team members designed a 125-pound canoe this year and they plan to put it to the test in the Master Builders Technology Inc. American Society of Civil Engineers National Concrete Canoe Competition. The competition will be held in June in Madison, Wis.
The Spartan team, led by captain Sarah Rozema, qualified for nationals after winning the North Central Regionals on April 13 and 14 at Lansing’s Grand River Park.
But a lot of work went into creating the team’s canoe before it crossed the finish line.
Rozema said the group has a meeting at the beginning of each school year to recruit students who want to be involved with constructing the project.
“Anybody who wants to be on the team can be,” the civil engineering senior said. “Everyone has to be a registered member of the American Society of Civil Engineers but we have engineering art students as well as civil engineering students and we have had other students in the past.”
The group started fall semester with the designing. It started with the shape and hull design, then created the concrete mixture.
During this semester, it started placing the mold and letting it cure. When that was complete, it started the tedious sanding process, which required working five to six days a week.
“We would spend countless hours working on it,” Rozema said. “Sometimes it would be one day a week and then there were times when we would work on it for 10 days straight.”
The canoe was painted and completed in time for the regional event two weeks ago.
Besides engineering the canoe, the team also had to prepare for the river race by having paddling practices. The group will resume practice after final exam week to get ready for nationals.
Mackenzie Davis, the group’s adviser and a professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the MSU team has been active since 1971.
“It got started back in the ’60s as a way to put into practice the lessons learned in the classroom,” he said. “And of course, to have fun.”
The American Society of Civil Engineers, in conjunction with Master Builders Inc., a supplier of concrete additives, sponsored the first National Concrete Canoe Competition at MSU in 1988, Davis said.
Because this year is the 150th anniversary of ASCE, Rozema said there will likely be several companies in the position to offer jobs to engineering students.
“Being involved in the group will show employers that I’m active in school and that I am applying what I’ve learned,” civil engineering junior Dana Nuffer said. “I don‘t really know what I want to do yet but this will let me get a feel for all the different options.”
