K-State Concrete Canoe team wins regional competition, advances to nationals
Friday, May 10, 2024
Members of the K-State Concrete Canoe team pose in the water at the Mid-America Student Symposium in Rolla, Missouri. From left: Nathan Streeter, Campbell Gaskill, Lindsay Schupp and Benjamin Garnmeister. The team won the event and will travel to the national competition hosted by Brigham Young University in June. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Concrete Canoe team took first place at its regional competition at the Mid-America Student Symposium hosted by Missouri University of Science and Technology in April.
The win at the regional event for the American Society of Civil Engineers, or ASCE, gives the K-State team the opportunity to compete at the national competition held on the campus of Brigham Young University from June 20-22. This will be the team's second trip to the national competition in the last three years.
The event challenges participants to create a functioning canoe made of concrete. The process includes designing a hull, performing structural analysis and 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 results. Races include men's and women's sprints and endurance races.
"The objective of the competition is to 'win the bid' to manufacture 100 concrete canoes for the client, in this case, ASCE," said Cody Meyer, team president. "The canoe must meet all the criteria set forward in the 'request for proposals,' which is essentially the project specs."
This year's team changed up its design, opting to pour the canoe in segments that required multiple pours. The resulting canoe segments were then pieced together by pulling steel cables through the segments, putting tension on the cables and then anchoring the cables to the canoe. The team then put the tension force into the canoe segments and pulled them tightly together, and the finished canoe was named Connected.
"The team this year dedicated many hours to making a successful canoe," said Cody Meyer, team president. "They worked incredibly hard to make 'Connected' a reality, and their success is well deserved."
Members of the 2024-2025 Concrete Canoe team include:
Ethan Holder, senior in construction science management, Andover; Keegan Harris, sophomore in construction science management, Columbus; Elle Dragone, junior in civil engineering, and Ally Hower, sophomore in architectural engineering, both from Council Grove; William Matchell, junior in civil engineering, Leawood; Campbell Gaskill, sophomore in math education, Lindsborg; Alex Ko, junior in civil engineering, McPherson; Lindsay Schupp, senior in chemical engineering, Oskaloosa; Shelby Merkel, senior in civil engineering, Overland Park; Mason Lofton, freshman in mechanical engineering, Piper; Michael Dishman, sophomore in civil engineering, and Jenna Haas, sophomore in accounting, both from Pratt; Cody Meyer, senior in civil engineering, Sabetha; Nathan Streeter, senior in civil engineering, Salina; Aidan Torrez, junior in construction science management, Spring Hill; Abbi Clark, senior in civil engineering, Wamego; Kisan Patel, senior in civil engineering, Wichita.
From out of state: Ben Garnmeister, senior in civil engineering, Arlington Heights, Illinois; Kayleigh Bednar, senior in industrial engineering, Liberty, Missouri.
