Clemson University engineering students' concrete canoe floats to 11th place

Published: June 22, 2011

Clemson's 2011 entry in the national concrete canoe competition on display in Evansville, Ind. image by: ASCE

CLEMSON — Engineers often are asked to do the seemingly impossible.

To prepare them for this kind of work, students of engineering sometimes get similar assignments, like making rocks float.

In this case, the rocks are concrete. And students must make them do more than float: They must design, build — and race — concrete canoes.

"This seemingly impossible task allows the students to creatively apply classroom principles in a real-world setting, which will help prepare them to address the challenges they will face in their professional careers," said Kathy J. Caldwell, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which annually sponsors a concrete canoe competition among engineering students at dozens of universities in the United States and Canada.

Clemson University's concrete canoe team took 11th place at this year's competition in Evansville, Ind., June 16-18. Clemson has won the event three times: in 1999, 2000 and 2002; the Tiger team was 14th last year.

The event is more than just building and racing. Students practice leadership and project-management skills during the year-long project and get hands-on experience in the design and production of advanced concrete structures.

Entries are judged on the design, construction and innovative features as well as the racing ability of the canoes. Teams must submit technical design papers describing their planning, development, testing and construction and must make academic oral presentations before professional engineers.

"The concept may sound unusual, but the idea is to give students firsthand experience in meeting extreme engineering challenges and handling them as they will be required to in the profession," said Brad Putman, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Clemson and adviser to the team. "It's very much about combining technical knowledge with creativity, project management and teamwork."

Clemson's team won its regional conference competition in at the Carolinas Conference to qualify for the national event, a feat it has accomplished 17 of the past 18 years. Its entry in the nationals — a 20-foot, 176-pound canoe —  placed seventh in the Design Paper, eighth in the Women's Sprint, ninth in the Men’s Sprint, ninth in the Co-ed Sprint and eighth in the Women's Slalom/Endurance.

The varied challenges of the competition are meant to "tests competitors' knowledge and ingenuity as they work to overcome the challenge of building a canoe out of concrete that is able to both float and race," Caldwell said.

Members of Clemson's 2011 team are:

• Jenna Buffi (senior co-captain), Smithfield, R.I.
• Patrick Nestbitt (junior co-captain), Sumter
• Neil Bolling (junior), Westminster
• Gregory Bunting (graduate student), Columbia
• Tiffany Carson (senior), East Brunswick, N.J.
• Hannah Caviness (junior), Buffalo
• Anthony DiPrima (junior), Easley
• David Duncan (graduate student), Fort Mill
• Alex Filo (junior), North Charleston
• Tyler Gilstrap (junior), Lugoff
• Ryan Holder (junior), Greenville
• Lea Huggins (senior), Walterboro
• David Lane (senior), Pawleys Island
• Kimmie Lyons (senior), Bamberg
• Simone Neuhoff (senior), Simpsonville
• Erin Stroupe (senior), Forsyth, Ga.

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society.

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