Since 2012, the annual “Walk on Water” competition has been a rite of passage for undergraduate engineers at Fairfield University. This year, both the competition and the “Fundamentals of Engineering” course were redesigned, following a grant from the trustees of the Engineering Information Foundation. Dr. Drazan, Dr. Kongar, and Dr. Belfadel incorporated the latest innovations in communication and engineering pedagogy into the course, to expand the design skill set of their students and help them experience the type of challenges they will face in their careers.

Given a budget of $200 for materials, teams were encouraged to incorporate spare, repurposed, and recyclable parts into their design.

For their design, Charlotte Savigny ’26, Kayleigh Chin ’26, and Sarah Dorgan ’26 analyzed the buoyancy and movement of boats. Using this knowledge, they used foam with a similar consistency to a boogie board that attached to a PVC pipe to act as a flotation device. For extra support, the team added buckets to the bottom for stabilization. They also designed foam foot boards that were encased to allow them to propel through the water.

“This experience has taught us many helpful tips regarding different design processes and how to make alterations in order to take our original ideas and make them better. We have used problem-solving skills to determine which design would be the most efficient for our project, while also keeping within the various constraints we were given,” said Savigny.

The team also noted that “through this process, we are taught to think critically about how to create a structure that is stable, buoyant, able to cut through water efficiently, and strong enough to sustain an operator.”

Also new this year, student teams incorporated a service-learning element to the annual event by engaging with Wakeman Boys & Girls Club members to the competition. Fairfield undergraduate engineers presented their design processes to the visiting students at the new state-of-the-art Innovation Annex, before heading over to the RecPlex to put their creations to the test.

“This experience built confidence in the first-year students and allowed them to practice their communication skills in an environment in which they were also serving as role models and mentors,” said Dr. Kongar. “This servicelearning opportunity is replicable for other engineering programs seeking to improve student communication skills, and will help build a more robust pipeline of young students into the engineering professions.”