Each year, UC San Diego's Concrete Canoe team competes in the National Concrete Canoe Competition hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The competition challenges students to design and build a 20-foot long canoe out of reinforced concrete. A set of prescribed rules governs the design of the concrete and all other aspects of the competition. Using programs like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Matlab, and MaxSurf3000, students apply theoretical concepts learned from their classes to design, analyze, and fabricate a material product. They also gain hands-on experience mixing and testing concrete, constructing the mold and reinforcement systems, applying the aesthetic designs, and ultimately fabricating the canoe for competition.

The team competes against 18 other schools in the Pacific Southwest Conference such as UCLA, Cal Poly SLO, and University of Hawaii. At PSWS, each team is judged in four categories: aesthetics, canoe races, an oral presentation, and a technical paper. The top team moves on to the national competition where they compete against other regional winners.