A team of students from Missouri University of Science and Technology is taking a 225-pound canoe made of concrete to Edwardsville, Ill., to see if it will float.

The S&T Concrete Canoe Team and its 20-foot-long, 30.5-inch-wide canoe, christened “Gone Fishin’,” will compete against universities from around the region at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Mid-Continent Student Conference, held April 4-6, at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. The conference will test the group and its creation to the limit.

For the competition, students must design a lightweight canoe that minimizes drag in the water, is strong enough to hold several paddlers and can remain buoyant when completely filled with water.

In Edwardsville, the teams will compete in several areas. Each team is judged on engineering reports and presentations, displays that illustrate the students manufacturing process and head-to-head races in slalom and endurance events.

This year the team has constructed its canoe using a male mold, a first for the group. Students cut pine boards into quarter-inch strips and the interior is the smoothest that returning design team members have ever seen, with the group achieving a difficult uniformed edge. The canoe itself is designed to look like a fishing lure, which fits the team’s fishing theme, and the display will be designed like a tackle box.

“I am extremely proud of the effort the team put into conquering the male mold this year,” says team leader Sonya Snyder, a sophomore in metallurgical engineering from Las Vegas, Nev. “It took many tries and countless hours, but we made it to competition. ‘Gone Fishin” is not just a canoe, it is a learning experience.”

Dr. John Myers, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at S&T, is the Concrete Canoe Team faculty advisor.

For more information about the competition visit the 2013 ASCE Mid-Continent Student Conference website at http://www.ce.siue.edu/asce/MCSC/default.html or contact Brent Vaughn at bvaughn@siue.edu.

The following students are part of the 2013 Concrete Canoe Team:

Blake Anderson, a sophomore in engineering from Washington, Mo.
Erin Bolling, a junior in engineering management from Kansas City, Mo.
Brian Dulle, a senior in civil engineering from St. Louis
Rachel Kautz, a senior in petroleum engineering from Kansas City, Mo.
Matthew Kitsch, a freshman in architectural engineering from Collinsville, Ill.
Tyler Payne, a senior in civil engineering from Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Tyler Pyatt, a senior in civil engineering from Rolla, Mo.
Travis Roth, a senior in civil engineering from Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Andrea Schumann, a senior in architectural engineering from St. Louis
Kristina Sevy, a senior in chemical engineering from Blue Springs, Mo.
Sonya Snyder, a sophomore in metallurgical engineering from Las Vegas, Nev.
Kyle Thompson, a senior in environmental engineering from Tulsa, Okla.
Nicholas Traub, a sophomore in civil engineering from Green Bay, Wis.
Charles Viets, a sophomore in engineering from Rolla, Mo.
Julie Whitehead, a senior in civil engineering from St. Louis
Aspen Williams, a sophomore in architectural engineering from Rochester, Ill.