The Stony Brook University chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (SBU ASCE) team worked for more than five months to build a 20-foot canoe made entirely of concrete to compete for the first time ever in the ASCE Metropolitan Concrete Canoe Competition.
ASCE student organizations nationwide have been constructing and racing concrete canoes on the local and conference level since the early 1970s. The objective of this historic competition is to provide civil engineering students an opportunity to gain hands-on, practical skills.
The SBU ASCE team transported its canoe named “Sea Wolf” to the competition in Denville, New Jersey, on April 26. Unfortunately it had a major break in transit, and as a result, the team was unable to place in certain categories. But the students were able to make some on-site repairs, competed in the flotation test and won third place for Oral Presentation.
The Oral Presentation, held at Rutgers University, was a timed technical overview of the concrete canoe engineering. The oral presenters for the SBU ASCE team were students Marie Baietto, Morgan DiCarlo and Kevin Hill. The team was judged based on some conciseness, expert content and presentation professionalism. Following the presentation, the students were also graded on their responses to a seven-minute period of intense technical questioning by a panel of three professional engineer judges.
“It was pretty miraculous that we were able to continue on after major damage,” said Morgan DiCarlo, a civil engineering major and business management minor who is also founder and president of SBU ASCE. “This is a fantastic result as first-time competitors in a pool of other schools that all had five or more years of experience.”
The SBU ASCE team includes: Nelsy Badia, Marie Baietto, Emily Chao, Ramona Chen, Anthony Cundari, Morgan DiCarlo, Pasquale Giaquinto, Tamara Goodwin, Kevin Hill, Jason Lai, Nicholas Lau, Ranko Liang, Kesley Price, Gabriela Saenz, Eric Steiger, Kristie Testa, Kevin Yee, Nicole Yoo and Christopher Zaverdas. Professor Harold Walker, director of Stony Brook’s Civil Engineering Program, and Kaitlin Thomassen, a lab technician in Civil Engineering, mentored the team.
The SBU ASCE team plans to compete again next year.
— Lynne Roth
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