Engineering Students and ‘Sea Esta’ Place Second at UF Competition
– Led by Rachel Gerena a senior civil engineering major, a team of Florida Tech students and their 2006 concrete canoe placed second in the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Southeast Regional Competition’s concrete canoe event. About 700 students representing 23 universities, from Florida,
Puerto Rico, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, attended the three-day competition.
At the competition, held in Gainesville, Fla., Florida Tech participated in 10 events, including the concrete canoe, steel bridge, balsa structure, and
surveying. The canoe and bridge events require thousands of hours of design, construction and finishing work each year. The canoes and bridges challenge
engineering students with problems that cannot be found in the classroom. Florida Tech student Richard Pruss led the steel bridge team, which built their
22-foot-long, 250-pound bridge in 10 minutes.
Twenty-seven Florida Tech civil engineering students participated in events. They took home six awards, including one for the high-strength concrete
competition, and four for canoe races.
The students earning awards for the high-strength concrete competition were sophomores Kolby Maddox, Jeremy Crowe and Joe Morrissey.
The students designed, built, displayed and raced their 2006 concrete canoe, the 21-foot, 215-pound Sea Esta. The canoe team is judged in four areas:
technical paper, five-minute presentation, final product and five races. In the races, men and women paddlers compete in a combination of sprints and
distance events.
Dr. Paul Cosentino, professor of civil engineering, the faculty advisor for Florida Tech’s ASCE student chapter, said, “These students are so passionate
about life and learning that they make my job perfect.” The president of the chapter, Lennon Shade, oversees all events. He ant the participating students
thank this year’s sponsors, which include Cemex, Vectorworks Marine and Metcon.
The student chapter participates annually in the regional ASCE event. The Florida Tech concrete canoe team was the national champion in 1997.
Florida Tech offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering. Visit the Web site at
http://civil.fit.edu/
