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SNAME Student Design Challenge is Off to the Races

In Phase 2 of the SNAME Maritime Conference, Student Steering Committee (SSC) “Student Design Challenge” engineering students from around the world were given a variety of tests to pass before the race to the finish line. The students were required to calculate the major hydrostatics of the vessel, lightship weight, fully loaded mean draft and trim to estimate the vessels speed while carrying 2 pounds of cargo. These requirements were marked on both sides of the vessel including a ¼” (~=7mm) tolerance.

Other requirements included: only supplied materials can be used: available time to design was 1.75 hours; vessel’s length < 15 inches (penalty of +1 sec on your time for every added inch); the vessel must have a sail and carry 2 pounds of cargo with no loss while the vessel crosses the pool; and, all parts must move as a whole. Each vessel was required to pass the race area of 6.5 ft twice with the best time used by the judges to use in scoring the ship’s performance.

Scores to determine a winner are calculated by the best time performance out of ALL teams and then divided with the race time performance of the vessel. If the design team’s lightship estimation difference from the actual lightship weight is off more than 5%, a penalty of 10% will be applied to the score. Furthermore, if the mean, afterward and foreward drafts of your vessel are not inside the designed marks, then a penalty of 10% and 5% will be applied to the score accordingly. Lastly, if you manage to correctly guess the speed of your vessel, within a 5% tolerance, you can gain a 10% bonus upon your score! In the rare occasion of a tie the faster vessel is announced as the winner.