2026 ASCE Mid-America Student Symposium

April 9-11, 2026

About

The ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition

The ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition provides students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience while testing their skills with concrete mix designs and project management challenges.

The first ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition was held in 1988, but the history of Concrete Canoe goes back to the 1960s, when a small number of ASCE Student Chapters began holding intramural concrete canoe races.

This elite competition combining engineering excellence, hydrodynamic design, and racing technique is known as the "America's Cup of Civil Engineering."

Steel Bridge Competition

Competition challenges students to extend their classroom knowledge to a practical and hands-on steel-design project that grows their interpersonal and professional skills, encourages innovation, and fosters impactful relationships between students and industry professionals. 

Each student team develops a concept for a scale-model steel bridge to span approximately 20 feet and to carry 2,500 pounds according to the competition rules. The team must determine how to fabricate their bridge and then plan for an efficient assembly under timed construction conditions at the competition. Bridges are also load-tested, weighed, and judged on aesthetics.