Separated from the chilly waters of Lake Monona by no more than a thin skin of concrete, college students from UW-Madison and 11 other schools put faith in their ability to design and build canoes out of a material usually more fit to be an anchor.
This feat of flotation, not always entirely successful on Friday, was part of the Great Lakes Regional Concrete Canoe Conference in which engineering students competed against one another for the chance to advance to a national competition while demonstrating the versatility of a rigid material.