Episode 144: Eric Steward, on that time he promised to get a concrete canoe tattoo

With the first ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships approaching this weekend, June 10-12 at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, there is an interesting drama playing out with the University of South Alabama concrete canoe team.

Longtime faculty adviser for the South Alabama ASCE student chapter Eric Steward, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, made a promise to his students a decade ago. If a South Alabama student team ever advanced to a Society-wide competition, he said, he’d commemorate the accomplishment with … a tattoo.

Ten years later, South Alabama has made the finals in steel bridge and concrete canoe.

In episode 144 of ASCE Plot Points, Steward discusses the value in ASCE student competitions and how this tattoo promise is going to play out.