Louisiana Tech University placed first in the Deep South Conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 2010 Concrete Canoe Competition held Saturday, March 27 in New Orleans. The win qualifies the team to participate in the national competition which will be held in June in San Luis Obispo, CA.  This will be the third time a Tech team has earned a spot in the national competition. The Concrete Canoe Competition requires each university to design, construct, and race a canoe made mostly of concrete. Canoes are judged for technical design, innovative use of advanced materials, aesthetics, construction, and performance. Since last September, Tech’s students have been developing a special high-strength, low density concrete hull specifically for this event.  They have held several “cold practices” on local lakes over the winter to make sure they could achieve the best performance of the hull. Professor and faculty advisor Rob Mc Kim said, “I have never worked with a better group of students.”  This is a team effort that requires leadership, technical skills, and lots of hard work. LSU’s team placed second behind Louisiana Tech with the University of Memphis taking third place. The University of New Orleans hosted the competition. The national competition will pit the winners of each of the 18 ASCE conference teams from the U.S., Mexico and Canada against one another. Written by Catherine Fraser – cfraser@latech.edu