Turning Concrete Into Confidence, Community, and Competition

Meet the Pluto Jacks: NAU’s Concrete Canoe Team

Hello! We are NAU's 2026 Concrete Canoe team, the Pluto Jacks! As part of our Senior Capstone, we are participating in this year’s Concrete Canoe Competition. This event challenges students across the country to design, build, and race a fully functional canoe made entirely out of concrete.

This unique project demonstrates the versatility of concrete while testing our ability to manage large-scale projects, communicate effectively, and problem-solve under real-world constraints over the course of nine months.

Engineering the Impossible

In order to compete, we must:

• Design, test, and analyze our canoe materials
• Fabricate and build a functional canoe
• Present our project at the regional conference
• Race our canoe in head-to-head physical competitions

This isn’t just about pouring concrete. It’s about applying our engineering education to tackle real design challenges while working as a team. Help Us Build, Race, and Win

Building a concrete canoe takes more than creativity. It requires resources. Your donation will help us fund:

• Materials for our concrete mix design
• Supplies and equipment for canoe fabrication
• Specialized software for finite element analysis
• Costs for testing, presentation, and competition

Every dollar ensures our team can push this project forward and represent NAU with pride at the competition.

Thank You!

We greatly appreciate your support of our organization. Thank you to everyone who contributes, no matter the amount. Each gift is a step closer to making our canoe the best it can possibly be. 

With your support, we’ll row our concrete canoe “to the moon and back!”