News

Cal Poly Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge Teams Strike Gold in Regional Competitions

March 29, 2012

No gold was left behind as Cal Poly collected every award at the concrete canoe and steel bridge events at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Pacific South West Regional Conference held March 22-24.

The bonanza of first-place finishes - 17 in total - were a record for the chapter, "and, quite possibly, for the conference," said Rakesh Goel, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.

In addition, the team was awarded first place in the technical paper competition and second place in the Quiz Pong/Quiz Bowl event.

The Cal Poly group competed with 17 other university teams from Southern California, Southern Nevada, Hawaii and Arizona. The event was held at Cal Poly Pomona in Los Angeles County.

The Cal Poly chapter has a distinguished history of success at the event, being named overall conference champion 15 times since 1995. For the past three consecutive years, the ASCE has honored the club with the prestigious Robert Ridgway Award recipient, given to the single most outstanding chapter out of the 280 student groups across the country.

In the concrete canoe competition, Cal Poly reigned in the men's endurance race, women's endurance race, men's sprint race, women's sprint race, co-ed sprint race, races overall, design paper, oral presentation, final product and concrete canoe overall.

In the steel bridge competition, the team was awarded first place in the categories of  construction speed, economy, stiffness, lightness, efficiency, display and overall.