Florida Tech Places First Overall in Concrete Canoe at 2011 Southeast Competition for Civil Engineering

MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Florida Institute of Technology student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in late March, brought back to campus some huge bragging rights. They earned several honors at the 2011 ASCE Southeast Student Conference, where Florida Tech teams competed in 15 Civil Engineering events. The competition was hosted by Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

The concrete canoe team took first place overall in the concrete canoe competition, winning first in the concrete canoe final product, concrete canoe design paper, and men’s sprint and men’s endurance races, second in women’s endurance and co-ed sprint and third place in the women’s sprint.
The canoe team will now travel to the national competition June 16-18 at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind., to compete for the ASCE National Championship in Concrete Canoe. Their captain is senior Andrew Bankert, a civil engineering major.

The team also placed second in the hydraulics competition and third place in the mystery event. The hydraulics competition requires engineering calculations to determine the magnitude and direction of a fluid flow event; in the mystery event students are involved in the design and construction of a space frame with limited communications between the designer and the constructor.

Participating universities included the University of Miami; University of Central Florida; University of Alabama; University of Tennessee; University of South Florida; University of North Florida; University of Puerto Rico; Florida International University; Florida Atlantic University; University of South Alabama; Florida A&M; Auburn University; Florida Gulf Coast University; Georgia Southern University; Southern Polytechnic State University; Tennessee Technological University; University of Florida and Vanderbilt University.

“Congratulations to an extremely dedicated and enthusiastic group of students who upheld the traditions of the past to pave the way for new traditions and glory,” said Ashok Pandit, faculty adviser to Florida Tech’s ASCE chapter and head of the Department of Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering. “We are one of the smallest schools in the competition and our students consistently do very well against the larger schools,” he added.

Florida Tech College of Engineering Professors Paul Cosentino and Ralph Locurcio accompanied the team to Cookeville; Cosentino was the concrete canoe team adviser. Gustavo Quiroz is the president of the Florida Tech student chapter of the ASCE, which comprises approximately 30 members.

The concrete canoe team includes Andrew Bankert, project manager; Stephen Craig, ASCE chapter vice president and head of construction; Drew Hollis, design and testing; and Alvaro Urcuyo and Priyanka Prakash, men’s and women’s paddling. Other contributors were Brennan Klein, Cassandra King, Jashelle Ojeda, Jenna Gardner, Kathleen Orrico, Kim Townsend, Richard Schulman, Jereme Hausmann, Jessica Haig, Lorenzo Fevola, Mara Bancroft, Matthew Walsh, Michelle Little, Patrick Hammond, Rafael Betit, Ethan Tyson, Quincy Sy, Etienne Wolmarans, Jon Haylock, McKenna Richardson, Ryan McChesney, Jose Vazquez, Josh Hinkle, Cody Harris, Dave Rollins, Muhammad Abusaq and Tuan Tran.

CUTLINE: From left to right are Stephen Craig, construction manager; Alvaro Urcuyo, paddling manager; Lorenzo Fevola, #1 male paddler; Cassandra Morecroft-King, business manager; Pete the Panther, Mike Matern; Andrew Bankert, canoe team captain; Michelle Little, #1 female paddler; and Matt Walsh, technical manager.