Purdue News
Purdue NewsStudent members of the American Society of Civil Engineers will stage a concrete canoe competition from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at Indiana Beach in Monticello. They also will participate in a two-day steel bridge competition Saturday and Sunday on the Purdue campus. Both events are free and open to the public.
The canoe contest is a series of races in which teams put their concrete design, structural design, and muscle power to the test. The canoes are designed and built from concrete by team members for the individual schools during the school year before the competition. They are then raced by men's, women's and coed teams in both sprint and distance races.
The steel bridge competition involves the design of a steel bridge within certain specifications. The bridge structures will be judged on their appearance, weight, speed/ease of assembly, and deflection under load. As in the concrete canoe design, team members spend the year developing a structure that maximizes strength while minimizing weight.
The bridge competition will take place over two days, with the mandatory inspection of the bridge and practice time from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, and the judging of the entries from 7:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 6. The competition both days will be in the North Ballroom of the Purdue Memorial Union
Both contests are part of the Great Lakes ASCE Regional Conference, which is sponsored by the Purdue chapter and will be held at Purdue during the same weekend. The 17 colleges represented at the conference are in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
CONTACT: Scott Ivany, Purdue ASCE chapter liaison, (765) 742-4794, e-mail, ivany@ecn.purdue.edu
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: For more information about covering these events, contact Grady Jones, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2096, or e-mail grady_jones@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
