By Jyll Phillips, Lincoln- Sentinel With Grant Guggisberg, K-State News & Communications Services
LHS alumni Hunter Meier always had a knack for building a “boat” from cardboard. His entries into the Post Rock Festival Cardboard Boat Races were able to stay afloat, stay intact after being wet and tickled both his intellect and creativity.
Now the Lincoln native makes canoes out of concrete. Meier is a member of the Kansas State University concrete canoe team which took second place at its regional competition while serving as hosts for the Mid-American Student Symposium in April. The weekendlong event was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and featured 15 student chapters from throughout the region. The races were held at Tuttle Creek State Park.
This competition challenges participants to create a functioning canoe made of concrete. The process includes designing a hull, performing structural analysis and finally, designing a concrete mixture that satisfies the strength requirements found in the structural analysis. Teams are judged for their final product, design paper, oral presentation and race finishes. Races include men’s and women’s sprints and endurance races.
“It was amazing to see our canoe and team perform so well,” said Amelia Mullin, a senior in architectural engineering. “We put in a lot of time and effort this year, and I think it definitely paid off.”
Meier, a senior in civil engineering at KSU said the team took a new approach with this year’s design, changing strategies from previous years while also creating a much lighter canoe that weighed 300 pounds.
“The team decided to do a segmental pre-casted concrete canoe, meaning that instead of one solid canoe, our canoe was made in two-foot sections and posttensioned together using 22 steel cables strategically placed throughout the walls of the canoe,” Meier said. “The benefits of this design include an increase in quality control, efficient and easy repairs, a decrease in the number of people needed to create the canoe and the availability to change the length of the canoe.”
The team will represent K-State at the 35th annual ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition finals after a second-place finish at the regional Mid-America Student Symposium in May.
The competition, which will feature 19 qualifiers from 10 regions, will be June 3-5 on the campus of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.
The canoes are also built around a theme, with K-State choosing Triton’s Trireme as its theme for 2022.
“As a team, we feel honored to represent K-State at the competition,” said Maddie Akers, senior in civil engineering and geology. “Seeing our hard work pay off has been a tremendous reward.”
Meier said the team bonded as it prepared for regional competition on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, Iowa.
“Our team had grown close during the weeks and months leading up to the competition in Ames,” he said. “To advance to the national competition in Ruston will further solidify this bond and we look forward to competing again next year.”
Members of the K-State ASCE Concrete Canoe team include the following students: Hunter Prochaska, junior in civil engineering, Beloit; Aidan Torrez, sophomore in civil engineering, Bucyrus. From Greater Kansas City: Luke Vohs, senior in civil engineering, Lenexa; Isabelle McCann, senior in civil engineering, Mission; Quinn Underwood, senior in civil engineering, Overland Park; and Amelia Mullin, senior in architectural engineering, Shawnee.
Hunter Meier, senior in civil engineering, Lincoln; Dalton Willbrant, May 2022 graduate in civil engineering, Manhattan; Lindsay Schupp, freshman in general engineering, Oskaloosa; Cody Meyer, junior in civil engineering, Sabetha; Nathan Streeter, sophomore in civil engineering, Salina; Abbi Clark, junior in civil engineering, Wamego; and Kisan Patel, senior in civil engineering, Wichita.
From out of state: Ben Garnmeister, junior in civil engineering, Arlington Heights, Illinois; Kayleigh Bednar, sophomore in industrial engineering, Kansas City, Missouri; Ciara Hogsett, May 2022 graduate in civil engineering, Willow Springs, Missouri; Maddie Akers, senior in civil engineering, Omaha, Nebraska.
