Photo © Phil Klein. Photo courtesy American Society of Civil Engineers.

Members of Montréal's École de technologie supérieure team race "Montferrand," their concrete canoe, at this year's American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE's) annual National Concrete Canoe Competition. The team took home third place.

Montréal's École de technologie supérieure took third place at this year's American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE's) 23^rd annual National Concrete Canoe Competition.

Throughout the year, teams of civil engineering students from across the United States and Canada had to research, design, and construct concrete canoes. After coming out on top in regional competitions throughout the spring, the best from 22 engineering schools entered the national finals. The Montréal students won a $1500 scholarship with their 81.6-kg (180-lb) canoe, "Montferrand."

In other ASCE student competition news, Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Ont.) placed third in the 19^th annual ASCE/American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) National Student Steel Bridge Competition.

About 500 students, comprising 46 teams, participated from Canadian, U.S., and Mexican universities. Each team displayed skills in steel design, steel fabrication, and teamwork in building a 6.4-m (21-ft) long scaled model of a proposed bridge that met particular hypothetical requirements given to all teams. This year's specification stated the bridge was a means of providing access to a new oil field located in the Arctic tundra, and had to span a river and adjacent floodway.

"The American Institute of Steel Construction instituted this competition in order to promote the education of civil engineering students who, in the future, will be specifying and designing structural steel," Frank Hatfield, PE, chair of the competition's rules committee, told Construction Canada Online. "The steel industry benefits from their enhanced awareness and design skills. It's fun for the students and long-range marketing for structural steel."

Photo courtesy AISC Education

Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Ont.) placed third in the annual ASCE/AISC National Student Steel Bridge Competition.