University of Florida Reclaims Title as Concrete Canoe Champion at ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition at Civil Engineering Student Championships

Students From Purdue University-Northwest Win Surveying Competition, Georgia Tech Students Win Sustainable Solutions Competition

PROVO, Ut. — After three intense days of competition, a team of students from The University of Florida was named the winner of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Concrete Canoe Competition, which is part of the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships that were held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah June 20-22 this year. This is UF’s fourth Concrete Canoe title in the last ten years (2015, 2019, 2021, and 2024).

This year’s competition was the culmination of 22 regional student symposia held worldwide this spring. Those events included three Society-wide competitions to showcase a wide array of civil engineering disciplines: the ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition, the ASCE Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute Surveying Competition and the Sustainable Solutions Competition: Waterfront Revitalization.

In ASCE’s flagship competition, Concrete Canoe, teams are assessed in four areas: a paper detailing the design and construction of the canoe, oral presentations about the planning and creation, the final product, and canoe races. This year’s canoes were tested on Friday at Lake Utah State Park in Provo. Concrete Canoe teams competed in a series of races, including men’s and women’s slalom, men’s and women’s sprint races, and a co-ed sprint race.

“I am so proud of our team,” said Abigail Fronk, a co-project manager on the University of Florida team. “It’s so fulfilling. But it’s also such an honor to be first place. So it’s just an incredible feeling.”

The University of Florida’s canoe, the Springseeker, weighed 186 pounds and was 251 inches long. The Springseeker’s design featured UF’s orange and blue colors and was accented by ferns and a brick arch depicting the fountain of youth. When the University of Florida team was announced as the winner of the Concrete Canoe Competition, the other teams in attendance celebrated the champions by doing the University of Florida’s ‘Gator Chomp’ cheer as they accepted the Champion’s trophy.

“Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who competed at the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships this year,” said ASCE President Marsia Geldert-Murphey, P.E. “The problem-solving, technical, and engineering skills these future civil engineers gained through these competitions will serve them well as they start their careers – and they will remember the fun, teamwork, and friends made throughout their lives.”

The team from Georgia Institute of Technology won the ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition. Teams are challenged to incorporate sustainable practices into real-world project scenarios that they will regularly face in their civil engineering careers. This year’s competition required students to create a proposal to redevelop several parcels of waterfront land in a fictional city that was once a manufacturing hub using the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision framework to meet the city’s sustainability goals.

Students from Purdue University Northwest were named the champions of the ASCE UESI Surveying Competition. This competition recognizes the importance of basic surveying principles to all civil engineering projects and highlights methods to solve common problems that these future professionals will encounter in the industry. In this competition, competitors completed a topographic mapping project and field tasks that are part of the surveying process.

The ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships featured teams from 48 universities across the United States and Canada. There were 25 Concrete Canoe teams, 18 Sustainable Solutions teams, and 15 Surveying teams.

2024 Rankings

Concrete Canoe

1. University of Florida

2. Université Laval

3. California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

Sustainable Solutions

1. Georgia Institute of Technology
2. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
3. Boise State University

Surveying

1. Purdue University Northwest
2. Clemson University
3. Pennsylvania State University – University Park

ASCE and Brigham Young University organized this year’s ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships with generous support from the ASCE Foundation, Horrocks Engineers, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, Simpson Strong-Tie, and others.

For more information on the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships, including a list of all the winners, visit https://www.asce.org/communities/student-members/conferences/asce-civil-engineering-student-championships. Additional photos of this past weekend’s events and all teams are also available by emailing rmarmet@asce.org.