U of A Great Northern Concrete Toboggan team co-captains Aaron Zidichouski and Andrea Badger are gearing up for some speedy downhill action at the national championships in Calgary Feb. 8 – 12.

Edmonton—Some ideas are just so outrageous you can’t resist following through on them. The Faculty of Engineering’s Great Northern Concrete Toboggan race team is a prime example.

After all, who else but engineering students would design, build and race a 300-pound concrete toboggan?

“The whole idea is absurd,” admits mechanical engineering student Aaron Zidichouski, captain of this year’s GNCTR team. “It’s hilarious.”

Team co-captain Amanda Badger, who is studying environmental engineering, agrees. “Whenever I tell people we’re building a 300-pound concrete toboggan their reaction is ‘You’re doing what? With what?’”

The idea was born when the universities of Alberta and Calgary staged the inaugural Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race in 1974. Since then, the event has spread far and wide. Last year, the U of A hosted more than 450 engineering students from across Canada for the national GNCTR championships.

Teams are required to design and build a toboggan weighing less than 300 pounds, from metal and concrete. The toboggan needs to have a functioning braking system and roll bars and meet stringent safety requirements and inspections. Sleds are judged on design, construction and performance—the sled that makes it down a hill in the fastest time and comes to a stop in the shortest distance wins the coveted King of the Hill award. Teams are judged not only on their toboggan but also on knowledge of their sled, team spirit and creativity—teams select a theme and run with it. This year’s U of A entry, from the sled to the display booth and costumes, is based on the science-fiction Tron movies.

While the concept may be absurd and the races may seem like too much fun to be educational, considerable engineering know-how goes into the design of the toboggans. Mixing the concrete is a science of its own—so far the U of A team has tried three different batches to strike a perfect balance between strength and weight.

This year’s toboggan has undergone a radical departure in design from previous years. Rather than building a toboggan with four seated passengers in the front and one team member standing at the back to operate the brake, this year’s sled has all five team members seated.

“Our new braking configuration and rider configuration go hand in hand,” said Badger, explaining that the two riders at the back are seated on a section of sled that drops and acts as a brake.

The move, says Zidichouski, was partly made as a safety measure to prevent the standing brake operator from falling off the sled on rough rides.

“One thing that’s really helpful is that we have about seven years’ worth of prototype testing results that we can look at to find out what works well and what doesn’t,” he said.

With the nationals scheduled for Feb. 8 – 12 at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park, the U of A team is past the design and into the construction of its sled.

Both Badger and Zidichouski say participating in engineering clubs and applying their engineering knowledge adds an extra dimension to their engineering education. Competitors learn about team work and communication skills and get the chance to apply their engineering knowledge in real-world situations.

Rick Mercer steered U of A sled to, uh, glory?

The U of A GNCTR team hosted the 2011 national concrete toboggan competition and the home team had a guest member—comedian Rick Mercer, who broadcasted the event nationally with his coverage of the event on the Rick Mercer Report.

Coincidentally, this year’s team captain, Aaron Zidichouski, was inspired to get involved with the student group even before being accepted into the Faculty of Engineering at the U of A. While growing up in Prince Edward Island, Zidichouski saw a segment on Mercer’s program in which Mercer featured concrete toboggan racing.

“I saw that segment on TV and through ‘I want to do that when I go to university.’ When I came to the U of A and saw the GNCTR team’s presentation I joined right away,” he said.

“When Rick was here in January I got to talk to him for a while and I told him about that—he thought it was kind of flattered by that.”