Engineering students from across New York state will visit Cornell in April for the Upstate New York American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Student Conference featuring competitions to build a steel bridge and a concrete canoe.

The public is invited to watch the competitions all day April 14. Winners of the canoe contest will advance to nationals June 14-16 at the University of Washington, Seattle, while bridge contest winners will compete nationally May 25-26 at California State University at Northridge.

Winners of the April 14 competition will be announced that evening during a dinner at Lynah Rink. On April 13, Cornell civil and environmental engineering students are invited to a networking event with company sponsors.

The canoe competition comprises teams that create forms and test concrete mixes to mold them into canoes, which take about 28 days to harden.

For the bridge competition, teams must design and build steel bridges, which this year will be 20 feet long and 4 feet wide. They also will be required to disassemble and reconstruct their bridges while being timed and judged.

The April 14 events will include judging of canoes and bridges for aesthetics from 8 to 9 a.m. in Lynah Rink, the bridge construction competition from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Lynah, and the canoe competition from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., venue to be announced.