Michigan Tech students have been proving across the board why they’re top notch, and that’s not just in the classroom. From canoes that shouldn’t float, to using maple syrup to strengthen Michigan’s economy, to a car powered by chemicals, students have been doing some awesome things, and here’s a little insight into what’s been going on.
First off, the MTU Concrete Canoe team rocked the 2010 American Society of Civil Engineers North-Central Regional competition, which was held in Kalamazoo. The team almost swept the whole competition, being awarded first place in three of the competition areas: paper, display, and racing. Their presentation took second overall.
You’re probably asking yourself how exactly concrete is able to float. According to the MTU Concrete Canoe website, traditional concrete is a mixture of cement, water, sand, and gravel. They use tiny spheres of recycled hollow glass and ceramic rather than sand and gravel. This results in their ability to float.
The technical paper category, which the team excelled in, required the writing of a “professional quality design paper” which details basically everything in the process for making the canoe, including concrete design, management, testing, and construction.
The team also swept the races, which consisted of the two person women’s sprint, two person men’s sprint, three person women’s endurance, three person men’s endurance, and the four person coed sprint. The women’s team even posted a faster time in the endurance than all men’s endurance teams, other than MTU’s men’s team.
And last, but not least, the team dominated the final product aspect of the competition, which was when the canoe was displayed and judged for aesthetics and their consistency with the official competition rules, specifically dimensions and materials used.
The MTU Concrete Canoe team has been in existence since the 1991-1992, and they have won 10 Regional Championships in the past 11 years. Various canoe names throughout the years have been good representatives of the MTU campus and the Keweenaw area, including The MacInnes, Copper Country Cruiser, Keweenaw Miner, and of course, this year’s Yooper. The team, led by Ryan Hoensheid, senior co-captain, and Jon Zalud, junior co-captain, will now head to the ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition this June at California Polytechnic University.



Houghton Arpt, MI