But what really makes it work, he says, is Georgelas' outgoing personality. Sometimes she's almost out of control. Engineers paddle 'shark' to victory Paddlers from civil engineering won the co-ed sprints and took second in the women's long distance event at the annual concrete canoe competition in a boat made largely with material that was destined for the landfill. Union's team entered a design that had never been tried before in the competition, said Ashraf Ghaly, canoe team advisor. The canoe was poured into its mold only eight days before the competition, said Katie Ott '98, one of the team captains.
Most canoes take about a month to reach full strength.
A previous design proved to be too thin, so they started over just a week before the competition, Ott said. The canoe will be on display at the Steinmetz Symposium on Friday. The canoe competition, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, was hosted this year by the University of Buffalo on April 18, and included a number of schools from New York State. The paddling team of Ghaly and Wolfe took first place by default in the faculty division. Craig Gibson, Bryan Serrell and Jen Amann painted the boat.