Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Will it float? Senior civil engineering major Austin M. Moore of Jackson spends time these days figuring how to make a canoe from concrete.
Growing up with a father who owns a construction company, the Mississippi State student saw plenty of concrete poured for foundations of houses and other developments. He never imagined using the heavy material for floating in water.
Moore, president of the university's chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineering, and other students in the organization will spend time with a concrete canoe project at the Deep South Regional Competition in late March. To be held at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the event will bring together university students from Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and West Tennessee to see who can engineer the best project.
The concrete canoe competition involves construction most students haven't considered. For a canoe to work in the competition, they aim to make the canoe's weight close to 62 pounds per cubic foot, light enough to make it float.
Standard concrete weighs about 150 pounds per cubic feet. The canoe doesn't have to be composed entirely of concrete; it can have a minimum amount of steel reinforcement. The challenge includes using concrete that is light in weight, but also strong enough to keep it together while three students navigate it through water.
"The challenge is to get students to use creativity and innovation," Moore said. "We've got to find enough concrete that's got enough strength for three paddlers."
If the concrete used for the canoe isn't strong enough, it may crack while the students paddle through the water. Moore said the MSU group aims to use concrete weighing 45-50 pounds per cubic foot--strong enough to hold three people.
Along with constructing a canoe from concrete and racing against other student teams, Moore's team also will write and present a research paper about the canoe's design. The competition encourages students to work outside of class in a unique situation and complete a goal.
"It tests your creativity and requires a lot of design and research," Moore said.
Much of the first part of the process in building the canoe involves studying the best materials to use. During the semester break, Moore continues testing for the right mix of lightweight materials and substances with strength.
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NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information--or to reach Moore--contact MSU civil and environmental engineering department head Dennis Truax at 662-325-7187 or truax@cee.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.