K-State Concrete Canoe team takes second at regional competition
Thursday, May 11, 2023
The K-State Concrete Canoe team took second place at the regional competition. Racers Lindsay Schupp and Abbi Clark prepare for their race with assistance from Ethan Holder and Ethan Holle. Schupp and Clark competed in both the female and co-ed sprints. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Concrete Canoe team took second place at its regional competition while serving as hosts for the Mid-America Student Symposium in April.
The weekendlong American Society of Civil Engineers, or ASCE, event featured 15 student chapters from around the region with races held at Tuttle Creek State Park.
The competition challenges participants to create a functioning canoe made of concrete. The process includes designing a hull, performing structural analysis and finally designing a concrete mixture that satisfies the strength requirements found in the structural analysis. Teams are judged for their final product, design paper, oral presentation and race finishes. Races include men's and women's sprints and endurance races.
"It was amazing to see our canoe and team perform so well," said Amelia Mullin, senior in architectural engineering, Shawnee. "We put in a lot of time and effort this year, and I think it definitely paid off."
Hunter Meier, senior in civil engineering, Lincoln, said the team took a new approach with this year's design, changing strategies from previous years while also creating a much lighter canoe that weighed 300 pounds.
"The team decided to do a segmental pre-casted concrete canoe, meaning that instead of one solid canoe, our canoe was made in two-foot sections and post tensioned together using 22 steel cables strategically placed throughout the walls of the canoe," Meier said. "The benefits of this design include an increase in quality control, efficient and easy repairs, a decrease in the number of people needed to create the canoe and the availability to change the length of the canoe."
Christopher Jones, Wallis-Lage Family Cornerstone teaching scholar and associate professor in the civil engineering department at K-State, is the team's faculty advisor.
Hunter Meier and Kisan Patel compete in the slalom race consisting of swerving between nine buoys followed by a 100-meter sprint. Meier and Patel finished second overall in the slalom race. | Download this photo.
In addition to Mullins and Meier, members of the K-State ASCE Concrete Canoe team include the following students:
Ethan Holder, junior in construction science and management, Andover; Hunter Prochaska, junior in civil engineering, Beloit; Luke Vohs, senior in civil engineering, Lenexa; Alex Ko, sophomore in civil engineering, McPherson; Isabelle McCann, senior in civil engineering, Mission; Lindsay Schupp, junior in chemical engineering, Oskaloosa; Shelby Merkel, junior in civil engineering, and Quinn Underwood, senior in civil engineering, both from Overland Park; Cody Meyer,senior in civil engineering, Sabetha; Nathan Streeter, junior in civil engineering, Salina; Aidan Torrez, sophomore in civil engineering, Spring Hill; Ethan Holle, freshman in general engineering, and Abbi Clark, senior in civil engineering, both from Wamego; Kisan Patel, senior in civil engineering, Wichita.
From out of state: Benjamin Garnmeister, senior in civil engineering, Arlington Heights, Illinois; Kayleigh Bednar, junior in industrial engineering, Kansas City, Missouri; Maddie Akers, senior in civil engineering, Omaha, Nebraska.
