UTEP Takes First Place in the Technical Paper Presentation
April 28, 2008
Sixteen Civil Engineering students traveled for fourteen hours each way in two vehicles to Corpus Christi, Texas, to compete with eleven other universities in the American Society of Civil Engineering’s concrete canoe contest. The team towed a 24 foot trailer that contained their twenty foot long concrete canoe. Construction of the canoe took place over the previous four months. The competition is not a simple event; it consists of four parts. The first part is the technical paper. One month prior to the competition the team submitted their ten page technical paper that described their technical design and organizational efforts. The actual competition at Corpus Christi consisted of three additional parts: finished product and display board judging, technical presentation by the team and the concrete canoe races. As a pre-condition to the completion, the team also had to compete in the Daniel Mead paper contest on ethics. Ms. Colleen Martindale, a graduating senior, took second place in this contest. Hans Tremmel, Brendan Voglewede and Veronica Guerrero represented the team in the technical paper presentation and did an outstanding job of answering the judge’s tough questions in order to end up in first place in this event. The paddling team was competitive in all the races but UTEP’s canoe weighed in more than 100 pounds heavier than the other school’s canoes. The added weight was due in large part to a last minute rebuild that was made necessary by the use of the wrong add mixture which prevented the concrete from curing! This was a hard lesson in learning to pay attention to details. Overall, UTEP claimed third place just behind Houston and UT Tyler.
