Steel bridges and concrete canoes will be put to the test this weekend as the UC Davis student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers hosts the organization's Mid-Pacific regional conference. All competition events are free and open to the public.

Taking part in the weekend's events will be teams from UC Davis; UC Berkeley; California State University, Sacramento; CSU Chico; CSU Fresno; San Francisco State University; San Jose State University; and Santa Clara University.

The concrete canoe events will take place at the CSU Sacramento aquatic center at Lake Natoma on Friday, April 25, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Teams will compete in endurance and sprint events, and will be judged on aesthetics and durability. There will also be a log-rolling competition at lunchtime.

The steel bridge competition will take place on Saturday, April 26, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Mondavi Center parking structure on the UC Davis campus. The teams have designed and fabricated a one-tenth scale model steel bridge that they have to assemble against the clock. The bridges are designed to carry a load of 2,600 pounds, and the teams will be judged on speed of assembly, strength and lightness of the bridge, as well as on design, appearance and efficiency.

The concrete canoes will be on display in the Buehler Alumni and Visitor's Center from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. There will also be a concrete-ball bowling competition on Saturday afternoon on the quad between the alumni center and the Mondavi Center.

Finalists in both competitions will go on to compete in their respective national finals. The 2008 National Student Steel Bridge Competition will be held on May 23-24 at the University of Florida, Gainesville. UC Davis' Team Chrome Ollie placed second in the national competition last year and first in 2005. The National Concrete Canoe Competition will be held June 19-21 in Montreal, Canada.

The student-run conference is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.