Concrete Canoe

The concrete canoe competition is all about exploring uncharted territory. As the name suggests, the goal is to design and construct a canoe out of concrete. This is a year-long process that goes through many stages including designing a hull using modeling software, creating and testing concrete mix designs, and constructing the canoe in order to create a water-tight, floating vessel that can be raced against other schools without cracking. This competition allows students to apply their acedemic knowledge to think outside the box, providing great problem solving and leadership opportunities.

Conference 2023: At University of Minnesota Duluth

Captains: Kinga Ludzia and Sebastian Molek

Canoe: Phoenix

Theme: The team choose the name Phoenix because these mythical creatures are symbols for hope, rebirth, and transformation. When a phoenix dies, they are reborn from their ashes and this year, our team was determined to overcome past setbacks. Our team has dedicated this year’s canoe to the mission of rebuilding our program and rising to become a competitive force in the concrete canoe competition for years to come.

Notable Achievements:

6th Overall
2nd in Technical Pesentation
5th in Project Proposal
8th in Final Product Prototype

Conference 2017: At Milwaukee School of Engineering

Captains: Will Dougherty and Blake Neuman

Canoe: Cownoe

Theme: The team choose to focus on sustainablity for the canoe program at Marquette, and what better way to represent sustainable a sustainable lifestyle in Wisconsin than farming and a cow- hence cownoe was born.

Notable Achievements:

7th overall
6th in Design Paper
5th in overall product
Races
- 3rd in womens sprint
- 6th in mens sprint
- 6th in mens endurance

Conference 2016: At Illinois Institute of Technology

Captains: Will Dougherty and Blake Neuman

Canoe: Compass

Theme: The team chose to name the canoe Compass because of all the innovations the club went through in 2016. As a compass helps an explorer find new paths, this canoe was the vessel with which the team found new ones as well.

Notable Achievements:

8th overall
5th in Design Paper
11th in overall product
Races
- 2nd in womens sprint
- 3rd in mens sprint
- 3rd in mens endurance
- 5th in Co-Ed Race

Conference 2015 at Notre Dame

Captains: Peter Hepp and Terry Harris

Canoe: Oppidan

Theme: Oppidan is Latin for 'of a town; urban'- and it was fitting to name the canoe this to represent the team, since, its such a large part of the identity of Marquette University - being so heavily integrated into the city of Milwaukee.

Notable Achievements:

Resurrected the club- did not have a canoe the year before
1st time using a female mold
2-tone coloring scheme on outside of canoe.