Florida Tech To Host National Concrete Canoe Competition June 6-8 on Turkey Creek
By Space Coast Daily // June 5, 2019
Competition will include 24 Teams racing across Turkey Creek at Goode Park in Palm Bay
BREVARD COUNTY • PALM BAY, FLORIDA – Though they may look simple, the 24 canoes that will race across Turkey Creek at Goode Park in Palm Bay on June 8 represent critical lessons for the college students who designed them, from structural and hull-form analysis to properties and mechanics of materials to ocean and civil engineering.
It takes all of that scholarship, and plenty of ingenuity, to make a boat made of concrete float.
For the first time since 1999, Florida Tech will host the 2019 American Society Of Civil Engineers National Concrete Canoe Competition.
Florida Tech is only the second university in Florida to host the 32-year-old event, which will feature two dozen teams from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Canada, India and China.
Back-to-back champion California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo returns looking to three-peat, having finished first in the Pacific Southwest Student Conference.
The University of Florida won the Southeast Student Conference and will look to dethrone Cal Poly after back-to-back runner-up finishes.
No matter who wins, the students involved get a unique educational experience, said Quinn Duffy, past president of the ASCE Student Chapter at Florida Tech, president-elect of the ASCE Space Coast Chapter, and chairman of the competition. He was lead author of the winning proposal to host the competition.
“This event allows for hands-on learning that takes students above and beyond what comes out of the classroom,” he said.
Here’s a look at highlights of the three-day event:
Thursday, June 6
1-1:30 p.m.: Welcome from College of Engineering and Science Dean Marco Carvalho, Florida Tech Panthereum.
1:30-5 p.m.: All canoes displayed on Crawford Green. Each team will represent a theme, and often the canoes are painted in creative and colorful ways. Among the canoe names in the competition: The Fossil, Song, Blue Fin and Apollo.
Friday, June 7
8 a.m. to 12 noon: Sustainable Solutions Competition: Dog House Challenge, south of Olin Life Sciences building. At least 10 teams, including several international representatives, will participate, each with a hand-built dog house.
1-5 p.m.: Oral presentations, Gleason Center for the Performing Arts. Each canoe team takes the stage to speak for 5 minutes about canoe design, construction timeline and other related topics.
Saturday, June 8
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Canoe races, Goode Park, 1300 Bianca Drive NE, Palm Bay. Race categories include men, women, co-ed and slalom. The races will take place on Turkey Creek, west of the park’s boat launch.
All events are open to the public and to the media.
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