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Mission
Every fall, our team bands together to develop a brand-new canoe engineered from concrete mixtures to compete in the spring ASCE Regional Concrete Canoe Competition. Our team’s mission is to collaboratively engineer the most innovative canoe possible. Our team’s vision is to create an improved lightweight concrete canoe able to float in water, while also focusing on a sustainable and environmentally friendly design. Your support will help us make this vision a reality, one step at a time.
Another unique aspect of our team is our focus on building our paddling abilities! As part of our competition, we choose 4 team members to paddle our canoe and race it against other canoes. To prepare for this we have team members take paddling lessons on Cayuga Lake and we also participate in a 90-mile canoe competition at the start of each fall semester. Additional funding would not only give us greater access to better paddles and instruction, but also empower more team members to participate in the 90-Miler!
Our team also prides itself on providing our members hands-on practical experience in several disciplines of engineering and transferable skills such as material properties and development, hands-on construction, and hydrodynamic and stress analysis through a unique and fun project. Any support you can provide will help empower the next generations of engineers to excel in their disciplines while conquering nuanced challenges on a collaborative team.
Our team consists of five sub-teams, each designated with an integral purpose and role in our canoe design. We also have an additional unofficial 6th paddling sub-team focused on helping members develop and improve their canoe paddling skills prior to competition.
Aesthetics
Our aesthetics sub-team is responsible for the appearance and presentation of our boat. These team members are responsible for adding an artistic touch to our competition canoe. Each year, this team brainstorms and takes several theme suggestions, and creates several canoe inlay designs and patterns based on the themes provided. After the entire team comes to a consensus on the desired theme for a given year, the aesthetics team completes its initial theme design and performs hands-on technical work with wooden boat stands and concrete inlays. They also create graphics for the design report, competition presentations, team merchandise, and social media.
Analysis
The analysis team is responsible for performing calculations, modeling, and testing to improve every aspect of the canoe creation process. This team develops novel, informative tests for concrete strength and often refines hull design and boat shape for improved speed, stability, and structural integrity. This sub-team is an essential component of our ability to create the most innovative boat possible.
Mix
The Mix sub-team is responsible for developing the structural, patching, and aesthetic concrete mixtures. The concrete mixtures that this team creates must be robust, lightweight, and able to maintain the canoe’s fluid dynamics. The Mix team also researches and explores sustainable, unique concrete materials, enabling our team to create the most environmentally friendly canoe we can.
Mold
The Mold sub-team is responsible for all team construction projects and for physically molding the practice cast and official cast of the canoe. The mold team's construction process includes creating a wooden mold and using it to create the concrete canoe itself. This team researches, learns, and develops innovative construction techniques to improve the boat's structural integrity from start to finish during the cast creation process.
Business
The business team is responsible for managing inventory and overseeing the team budget. The business team oversees reimbursements and materials purchasing for the rest of the team. By maintaining sponsor and alumni relations and organizing crowdfunding efforts each semester, the business team enables all other teams to have access to the resources they need to make the best canoe they can.
How Can You Help Us Achieve The Impossible
Your support will help our sub-teams listed above operate to their greatest potential, and create the best and most innovative canoe to bring completion in the coming spring. Any support given will greatly help our team cover the costs for future software, paddling practices, and materials needed. Members of Concrete Canoe have the opportunity to nurture their creative and technical expertise throughout their tenure on the team.
Each year each boat presents its own unique sets of challenges as we constantly adapt to higher expectations and new technologies. 100% of the funds from this crowdfunding campaign will go towards improving our team's operations and building our boat for this year's Concrete Canoe Competition. Only with your help can we make our goals a reality.
Thank you for donating $10! This will allow CCC to purchase vital personal protection equipment that is necessary to protect our team members while they work with concrete and its derivatives!
Thank you for donating $25! With this, CCC can purchase the laboratory equipment it needs to facilitate the testing, production, and creation of its best concrete mix and mold possible!
Thank you for your generous $50 donation! With this support, CCC can cover the necessary fees needed for paddling training programs on Cayuga Lake! By harnessing these programs, CCC can continue to train new generations of paddling team members and give them an invaluable edge during the paddling aspect of competition.
Innovation requires fast-moving adjustments and rigorous testing. With your generous $100 donation, CCC can cover the costs needed to purchase the crucial ingredients required for creating the most lightweight and structurally integral concrete mixture possible!
Every canoe we create requires an astonishing amount of physical labor from our mold team. With your generous donation of $250, CCC can purchase specialized wood, high-density foam, and other materials to boost the quality of our mold, canoe-carrier, and casting table!
Prototyping is an extremely integral part of creating a canoe. Therefore, it is immensely helpful to have a virtual model for our analysis team to test different hull designs and material properties. With your gracious and generous offer of $500, CCC can purchase licenses to premium modeling software to improve our design capabilities and make sure our canoe places as high as possible in competition!
Our annual competition is hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and we work all year to create the strongest, lightest, fastest concrete canoe to best represent Cornell in the civil engineering space. Competition provides a space for team members to network with professionals and demonstrate their new engineering skills. Your incredibly generous donation of $1000 can cover the costs of sending multiple CCC members to competition at the regional level and potentially to the national ASCE symposium!