Last weekend student chapters from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) met in the NY-NJ area to test their engineering prowess. At the downtown Brooklyn campus of NYU-Poly, students came with their steel bridge projects to see whose span had the best load-bearing capabilities. On the other side of the Hudson, several teams converged at Cook’s Pond in Denville, NJ in a concrete canoe reggetta held on Tuesday. The NYU-Poly team did quite well.
Skippered by Elizabeth Schrandt and Christine Ng, NYU-Poly won its race by three seconds, and they came in third overall. Teams were also judged on engineering principles and even business plans. Hmmm, could there be a concrete canoe startup in the future?
According to the team’s advisor, Professor Weihua Jin, this year the team “used concrete as a canvas and stained it with environmentally friendly mineral colors, turning the canoe into a beautiful art piece.” Jin added,”It is not your father’s concrete anymore.” I’ll say.
Any Jersey schools involved in this canoe-athon? Apparently, NJIT had fielded a team. As soon as I get their results, I will update this post.