• Jaden Urban

12 other universities from the western region took part in the canoe races.

On April 15, 2023 at the Sparks Marina, 13 universities from the Western Region, including University of Nevada, Reno competed in a concrete canoe competition.

The competition consists of teams of engineering students from their respected universities, made their own concrete canoes from scratch and then compete in a wide range of categories. 

Members of the team representing the University of Nevada, Reno explain just how much work goes into crafting these canoes.

"The process is pretty lengthy they start in September when the rules come out," said Kelly Keselica, Faculty Advisor for ASE Student Chapter at UNR. "They have to design the hold, they have to create a mold, design the concrete which must be lighter than water and then of course build it."

"It's really difficult as a team we spend thousands of hours combined to make this," said Annika Dixon, Paddler for UNR Concrete Team. "We spent two semesters working on this project."

While the races provide great visual entertainment and require a lot of physical exertion, that's only a fraction of the work that is taken into account by judges.

"The competition is judged on four different categories," Keselica said. "There's twenty percent that's the races, but the other 80 percent is technical content and the aesthetics of the boat. So, besides the aesthetics you have the technical presentation and technical paper that you prepare and so all four of those categories contribute to whether or not you win the competition."

The team tells us they considered what they learned from last year's success and failures when designing this year's entry.

They say this learning experience helped them bring their best foot forward today.

"Last year we actually won regionals, but our boat didn't pass the swamp test where we put it under the water, and it has to come back up on its own," Dixon said. "So, our strategy this year was to make sure our boat did float we achieved that. Our boat floats really well this year."

The Dean of Engineering at UNR, Erick Jones, expressed how proud he was of this team and told us how important it for the students is to do their best.

"Number one I think we have the best students in the world," Jones said. "Number two not only the engineering part of it, but also we're making sure we represent one of the best colleges of engineering in the country." Â