CU Boulder’s Concrete Canoe Team takes on new challenges
Mary Grace Lemkuhl raises her paddle and Claire Harvey raises her arms, while Vadim Uzchenksky paddles in the front and Graeme Schnarre paddles in the back during the co-ed canoe sprint race competition.
Cold, snowy conditions didn’t stop Թ of Colorado Boulder students from competing in the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) concrete canoe competition, an annual event where teams design, formulate their own concrete mixtures and paddle floating canoes made of low-density concrete.
CU Boulder’s ASCE student chapter competed at the Rocky Mountain Student Symposium, held April 23-25 in Rapid City, South Dakota and hosted by South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. The group was led by ASCE co-presidents Mary Grace Lehmkuhl and Julian Kotara, andAssociate Teaching ProfessorChris Senseney, the faculty advisor for the Concrete Canoe team.
“Julian and I aresuper proud of this year's symposium,” Lehmkuhl said. “Although CU Boulder did not do as well as we hoped, we competed in more competitions than ever before.”
Around 25 students from the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering designed and built this year’s 300-pound canoe, “Gone Bananas,” featuring bright yellow paint and a tropical theme. The team wore colorful Hawaiian shirts while presenting the canoe to the judges. During the races, the men's slalom team placed second against five other schools. CU Boulder placed fourth overall in the canoe competition.
“The success of getting a canoe to the conference unscathed is always something to celebrate,”Lehmkuhl said. “We’ve had canoes crack during transport in the past and a few schools had canoes break during the long journey to South Dakota this year.”
In addition to the canoe competition, the CU Boulder student chapter competed in the Timber Strong category for the first time. Led by CEAE students and Hannah Berger, the Timber Strong team finished third.
The event challenges teams to construct a two-story timber structure within 90 minutes; the team finished in 81:20,1:20 over their proposed time. While some wall components were prebuilt, most of the structure was assembled during the build period. The final structure was then inspected and load-tested to verify its strength.
Hanah Berger, Boden Kaminski-Willard, Joe Osborne, Tyler Rockey, Julian Kortara and Evelyn Ingraham (not pictured) construct their wood framed structure during the Timber Strong competition.
The team also placed third in the Sustainable Solutions competition, which challenges students to deepen their understanding of sustainability and apply it to real-world engineering problems. This year’s challenge focused on developing site and energy management plans for data centers.
“The team did a great job, incorporating water loop energy recovery systems to lower the effect the center had on the surrounding environment,” Kotara said.
CU Boulder also placed third in the Surveying competition.
The team is already looking forward to next year, when CU Boulder will host the regional ASCE Rocky Mountain Student Symposium.
“I’m incredibly excited for what’s ahead,” said Graeme Schnarre, next year’s ASCE president of CU Boulder’s student chapter. “Hosting the symposium will be a major undertaking, but it’s an amazing opportunity for our organization and one that will be incredibly rewarding.
“We’re planning to compete in most competitions next year, which is a huge step forward for our chapter. It speaks to the growth, dedication and momentum we’ve been building.”
Students interested in joining the ASCE student chapter and the 2026-27 team can emailasce@colorado.edu and follow on Instagram.
CU Boulder ASCE student chapter symposium participants hold their awards.