UCLA Engineering: UCLA Engineer Fall 2004

Engineering Students Design, Build Boats for Race
Senior Design Course Challenges Skills

Student-designed boats racing across the tank.

By Marlys Amundson

Anyone looking out onto the Engineering IV patio at the end of Spring Quarter would have seen an unusual sight. A crowd of students and onlookers gathered around a 16-foot tank of water to watch three unique boats racing across the pool. The competition was part of a mechanical and aerospace engineering senior design class, and included two timed runs by each team’s boat, as well as a head-to-head race.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Pirouz Kavehpour, who joined UCLA last year, restructured the course this year. “The class, as it was taught previously, was fairly open-ended,” explained Kavehpour. “Students were asked to design and test shapes relevant to their fields. I wanted to give them an interesting task with deadlines.”

Each team was asked to design and build a boat no more than two feet wide and a foot in length. The craft had to include a mock radar tower that rose at least three inches above deck, and an observation pod beneath the boat. Within each team were three groups: one working on the boat’s hull, another on the propulsion system and a third on the radar tower. Kavehpour appointed students as project manager and systems manager in each group.

Members of team Revolution make adjustments to their boat.

The project managers set the schedule and made sure the finished product would meet all the specifications laid out by Kavehpour. They also were on hand to provide a fresh set of eyes to any problems that arose.

“It’s sometimes easier to see a problem or solution if you’re coming from an outside view,” said Kristan Klinghoffer, the project manager for the Black Marlin group.

The systems managers ensured that each team’s design groups were working in sync and that a change to one aspect of the boat was relayed and considered by all members of the team. They were also responsible for evaluating ideas and limiting the amount of risk the group would take in its design.

The most challenging requirement posed by Kavehpour was that the boats, which had to be self-propelled, could not be powered by electricity, eliminating traditional power sources such as batteries.

The three teams settled on three different methods of propulsion. The Black Marlin propulsion team led by Matthew Tharp explored several options, ultimately choosing carbon dioxide (CO2) as their source of power for the engine.

“We needed a source that would be relatively light, efficient and able to power the boat across the tank,” explained Tharp. “We discarded springs and rubber bands, and tested rocket fuel but decided it was perhaps too easy.”

Team S.S.L.A. used compressed CO2 for propulsion of their craft. The Revolution group, which was not getting enough torque from their Stirling engine, switched to an estes rocket, commonly used in model rockets, for propulsion two days prior to the race.

As part of the course requirements, Kavehpour asked each team to submit a design report after four weeks and a testing report in the eighth week that compared results to date with their initial theories. These reports offered the students a chance to develop their teamwork skills, and to gain a full understanding of their boats’ systems. Although learning to work in larger groups presented a challenge initially, many of the students in the course ultimately welcomed the opportunity to apply both their practical sense and theories learned while at UCLA to designing and building a working boat under rigorous constraints.