News Detail

ACI Sponsors 30th Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition

6/23/2017

Co-ed sprint heats! #30thannualNCCC #concretecanoe pic.twitter.com/oita467ODt

— AmericanConcreteInst (@ConcreteACI) June 19, 2017

ACI traveled to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO, USA, last week to connect with students, faculty advisors, and young professionals at the 30th Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition. Serving as a Silver Sponsor of the event, ACI promoted free student e-membership, jobs and internships available through the ACI Career Center, and ACI Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship opportunities. Organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the 2017 national competition hosted 20 teams from the U.S., Canada, and China. Each of the 20 teams competed in and won regional qualifying events, granting them the opportunity to represent their universities at the national competition.

The competition consists of three days: display day, oral presentations, and race day. Each has a different focus and set of judging criteria, and cumulative scores from each of the three days determine the final competition winners. ACI’s presence was seen through its sponsorship of the competition and on the judges’ panel, as Kayla Hanson, ACI Young Professional member; Charles Nmai, member of ACI Committee 130 – Sustainability of Concrete; and Michael J. Schneider, ACI Past President, all served as judges for the event.

Why should #students get involved with ACI? A message from ACI Past President Michael Schneider... pic.twitter.com/ojNKNZMuYQ

— AmericanConcreteInst (@ConcreteACI) June 22, 2017

ACI Past President Michael Schneider explains why students should get involved with ACI

ACI spoke with students and faculty advisors throughout the week to talk about why they got involved with the competition and how it can prepare them for careers in the concrete industry.

“I was able to learn a lot about the materials and what goes into testing them,” said Taylor Anderson, student and member of the University of Wisconsin – Platteville concrete canoe team. “I took a materials class before I joined the team, and competing in this competition has kind of helped everything come full circle,” said Anderson.

“The three biggest skills students learn from this competition are leadership, communication, and teamwork, and those are those are skills that I think sometimes are neglected in the current engineering curriculum,” said Christopher Shearer, Faculty Advisor, South Dakota School of Mines concrete canoe team. “I think what the competition does specifically with concrete is it makes students excited about using the material, and they can see the possibilities that concrete can really be molded into any shape and used for a variety of applications,” said Shearer.

#30thAnnualNCCC judge and ACI Young Professional Kayla Hanson discusses how students can transfer knowledge from #concretecanoe to first job pic.twitter.com/WPJyxaZxH2

— AmericanConcreteInst (@ConcreteACI) June 18, 2017

30th Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition judge and ACI Young Professional Kayla Hanson discusses how students can transfer knowledge from the competition to their first job

California Polytechnic State University took first place overall and was awarded a $5,000 scholarship, while the University of Florida and the University of Akron rounded out the top three and were awarded $2,500 and $1,500 scholarships.