University of Wisconsin-Madison takes first place in 2006 National Concrete Canoe competition

Concrete Construction, August, 2006

Capturing their fourth straight Concrete Canoe title at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, University of Wisconsin-Madison's 21-foot-long, 162-pound, natural gray canoe Forward defeated entries from 22 other top engineering schools from across the country.

The team's closest competitors were California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Clemson University. Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo paddled into second place with the white, 250-pound, 21.25-foot-long Katana; and Clemson finished a close third with the granite brown, 151-pound, 18.67-foot-long Take It For Granite. For their top finishes, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, and Clemson earned $5000, $2500, and $1500 in scholarship money, respectively.

"Every year we challenge these students to come up with new and inventive designs, and every year they exceed our expectations," said Mike Shydlowski, BASF Admixtures president and CEO. "Their work, during the competition and in the future, will have a tremendous impact on the building industry."

The races, both endurance and sprint combined, counted for only 25 percent of the teams' overall score. The remaining 75 percent was based equally on a technical design paper that highlighted the planning, development, testing, and construction of the team's canoe; a formal five-minute oral presentation followed by a question and answer session; and the end product--the final racing canoe and project display--were scored on aesthetics and visual presentation.