Engineering Students Celebrate Year's End

A beloved boat race for junior-level students in Grand Valley State University's School of Engineering kicks off several days of celebration for budding engineers, whose academic year ends later than the rest of GVSU’s students. The events culminate with a design conference to show off student collaboration with local industry and a graduation ceremony.

The race, dubbed the Wooden Shoe Regatta, features model sailboats that students design, build, and test as part of the fluid mechanics course. The regatta is among the activities that mark the end of the academic year for GVSU’s engineering students. Also scheduled is the Senior Design Conference on Friday, August 3 from 1-5 p.m., also in the Keller Engineering building on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. On display will be projects designed and built by student teams to address actual problems and needs of area companies. The conference celebrates the successful completion of the Capstone Design Program.

• The Wooden Shoe Regatta will be Tuesday, July 31 at 11:30 a.m. in room 102 of the Keller Engineering Laboratories building in downtown Grand Rapids. Students will be awarded trophies for style and speed. The boats are 1/12 scale model sailboats, each carved from a 2-inch by 4-inch by 10-inch block of basswood. The exercise is aimed at giving students an understanding of how fluid mechanics can be applied to sailboats. The students use a special 12-foot towing tank and a wind tunnel to predict the performance of the hull and sails. Using the results, the students are able to predict how a full-scale vessel would perform. All of that testing, and an explanation of special design features, are put into a report, which is graded. The competitions are not part of the grade, but they are an important part of the project as the students have a chance to show what they have learned and put it to the test in competition, said Professor Shirley Fleischmann, who coordinates the event.

• The Senior Design Conference will be held on Friday, August 3 from 1-5 p.m. in the Keller Engineering Laboratories Building. On display will be 11 projects with a combined materials value exceeding $175,000. All projects were designed and built to address actual problems and needs of area companies. The conference celebrates the successful completion of the Capstone Design Program, in which teams of senior engineering students solve real-world engineering design problems sponsored by participating industries and other sponsoring organizations. The projects take two semesters to complete, and at the end the companies who participate have an actual working product.

The day culminates in the Order of the Engineer ceremony, which is a special commencement ritual for Engineering students. The graduates earn their degrees later in the year than the traditional spring ceremony because they must complete a year-long co-op experience. In the ceremony, each student receives an iron ring, placed on the little finger of the working hand, which symbolizes bridging the step between training and experience. The practice started in Canada and is firmly established in the U.S.