Racing a canoe made out of concrete, the Concrete Canoe Design Team at Missouri University of Science and Technology placed first in its regional competition this April and earned a spot at the national competition this summer.  

The team competed at the American Society of Civil Engineers Mid-America Student Symposium, held April 9-11. The symposium was co-hosted by Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  

The team presented a display of its canoe prototype with a full-size cross-section and delivered a technical presentation on the project design to a panel of judges before demonstrating the canoe’s seaworthiness in a series of races. Competing canoes must be sturdy enough to carry four people, but light and buoyant enough to have at least six inches of each side above the water line.  

The first official ASCE concrete canoe race took place in 1988, but student ASCE chapters have been holding intramural competitions since the 1960s. This win is Missouri S&T’s first in over 50 years of concrete canoe competition.  

Missouri S&T’s team placed first in all five races, as well as the technical presentation and product prototype. Missouri S&T won the overall symposium with a score supported by the Steel Bridge Design Team’s second-place finish and the Sustainable Engineering Team’s fourth-place finish, as well as strong performances in several other symposium events.   

The national finals will take place at the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships at Fairmont State University in Fairmont, West Virginia, in June.  

Students who traveled to the competition include:  

• Drew Angle, a junior in civil engineering from Glen Carbon, Illinois 

• Kellen Badgley, a senior in civil engineering from Carl Junction, Missouri 

• Luke Barnett, a junior in mechanical engineering from Troy, Illinois 

• Maddox Berlener, a junior in mechanical engineering from Eldon, Missouri 

• Madi Burgard, a junior in civil engineering and architectural engineering from Wildwood, Missouri 

• Aubrey Cox, a junior in civil engineering from Liberty, Missouri 

• Kyle Dickinson, a junior in civil engineering from Mokane, Missouri 

• Emma Eberhart, a junior in architectural engineering from Nashville, Illinois 

• Trey East, a first-year student in environmental engineering from Battlefield, Missouri 

• Grant Ernsting, a junior in civil engineering from Blue Springs, Missouri 

• Ankit Goswami, a junior in environmental engineering from Oakville, Missouri 

• Liam Greil, a senior in civil engineering from Dittmer, Missouri 

• Evan Huang, a junior in civil engineering from Rolla, Missouri  

• Oliwia Kazmierczak, a sophomore in civil engineering and architectural engineering from Fenton, Missouri 

• Lena Mais, a junior in civil engineering from Battlefield, Missouri 

• Lannah Montgomery, a first-year student in geological engineering from Lake Saint Louis, Missouri 

• Cameron Mueller, a first-year student in civil engineering from Fenton, Missouri 

• Alex Niewoehner, a first-year student in civil engineering from Fenton, Missouri 

• Jay Shuler, a junior in civil engineering from Pleasant Hill, Missouri 

• Jack Snider, a graduate student in civil engineering from Springfield, Missouri 

• Keerthana Thallam, a first-year student in information science and technology from Chesterfield, Missouri 

• Daniel Titcomb, a sophomore in civil engineering from Winfield, Illinois 

• Ben Walter, a senior in engineering management from Old Monroe, Missouri 

• Thomas Walters, a first-year student in civil engineering from Dixon, Missouri 

• Zoe Warden, a first-year student in architectural engineering from Bolivar, Missouri 

• Ava Weiman, a sophomore in biomedical engineering from Palmyra, Missouri 

• Jane Yates, a senior in environmental engineering from Knob Noster, Missouri. 

About Missouri University of Science and Technology 

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.