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Concrete canoe team prepares for regional competition
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
 When the racing teams held their open house at the Applied Research Center on Jan. 26, the concrete canoe team was putting together the forms to be used to make the canoe. Team members are (L-R) Chris Mattson, Ben Stenzel Adam Dumas, and Tim Swartzbaugh. Four Lawrence Tech civil engineering seniors will participate in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Midwest Regional Concrete Canoe competition March 26-28 on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. They will be competing against 11 schools from Michigan and Ohio, including the University of Michigan, Michigan Technological University, and Ohio Northern University. The team, consisting of Captain Adam Dumas, Chris Mattson, Tim Swartzbaugh, and Ben Stenzel, has been designing, testing, and constructing the USS Lawrence. The canoe will be made out of lightweight concrete designed especially for this project that consists of 50 percent recycled materials. “Lightweight concrete design is a very specialized part of civil engineering,” Dumas said. “Designing it with recycled materials and still having to put it in the lake and race it is a very unique challenge. I will definitely be able to use this knowledge throughout my career.” The team is finalizing the design and will be pouring the canoe at the end of January. The team will also be working on presentations and a display for the competition in March. If the team does well in the regional competition, it will qualify for the national competition to be held at the California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo on June 17.
– Chelsea Dumas
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IN THE NEWS
June 20, 2013
