Making paper sailboats and airplanes used to be an activity that interested only children and origami experts, but now chemical engineering students are finding these activities as time well spent. On April 6, two Mississippi State University chemical engineering students and a professor embarked on a trip to Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga., to take part in the Energy Challenge that tested their design of a sailboard made out of cardboard and other wood fibers. The MSU students did not take home any of the top three prizes, but, the MSU students did not disappoint themselves. They defeated three out of the seven other schools in the contest, and according to Ashley Slaton, a member of the design team that went on the trip, they did not put as much time into their design as the other schools did.
“The contest really wasn’t what I expected,” Slaton said. “They had really nice boards; we just took ours.”
Slaton said she does not mean to insinuate that the MSU board was a piece of junk. She said some of the other schools that participated received college credits for a senior-level design class for entering a board. The MSU team entered for the purposes of extracurricular experience and fun.
“The purpose of the Energy Challenge is to increase interest in science and engineering,” faculty sponsor Clifford George said in a press release. “The competition also promotes awareness of energy efficiency, manufacturing design, recycling, waste minimization, package maximizing and pulp and paper industrial processes.”
Some of the schools that participated in the contest have specialized curriculums for chemical engineers in the areas of pulp and paper. MSU does not have that specialized curriculum, but the students working on the sailboard used the knowledge available to construct a decent board.
“We could have made our board wider; it was a bit unsteady,” said Mike Wilemom, who drove the board.
Before Wilemom was propositioned to be the MSU windsurfer, he had no prior experience. To get ready for the race he bought a regular plastic raft and practiced on it.
“Our design held up very well,” Wilemom said. “After the third race, it was waterlogged.”
The students coated the boat with water sealant, and a board ran down the middle to maintain its sturdiness and provide a place for the sail to sit.
After rejecting five other designs, a team of eight students worked for a day building the sailboard.
George said completing a project like this one takes determination and skills.
“It requires planning and design work; students get to apply things they’ve learned in college to something practical,” George said.
Wilemom and Slaton said meeting students from different engineering schools was interesting.
“We exchanged ideas on the sail, building and design of the boards,” Wilemom said. “Some of their design ideas were better than ours, but we had the strongest board.”
“I didn’t know anything about the pulp and paper industry,” Slaton said. “There are a lot of things you can do with paper.”
Next year’s contest involves construction of a hang glider to fly in Kitty Hawk, N.C.