{"id":127953,"date":"2022-04-15T17:01:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T21:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=127953"},"modified":"2022-04-15T17:54:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T21:54:45","slug":"ucfs-2022-great-navel-orange-race-is-25-year-engineering-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucfs-2022-great-navel-orange-race-is-25-year-engineering-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF\u2019s 2022 Great Navel Orange Race Celebrates a 25-Year Engineering Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

It takes a boatload of student ingenuity and lots of oranges to pull off the Great Navel Orange Race at the University of Central Florida\u2019s iconic Reflecting Pond.<\/p>\n

Created 25 years ago by Professor Manoj Chopra and his colleagues, the Great Navel Orange Race is a rite of passage for first-year engineering students. The all-day event showcases students\u2019 handcrafted  self-propelled vessels, which are evaluated on how well they can carry a half-pound orange while racing around the Reflecting Pond. Boats must follow a required route, aiming to clock the fastest time in under five minutes. Boats that actually make it to the finish line and win their early race heats get to compete in the final races of the top 16 teams for the winning title.<\/p>\n

Participating is a requirement for students in UCF\u2019s Introduction to Engineering<\/em> course and represents the first hands-on engineering experience for many first-year students.<\/p>\n

Students must design and build their boats within strict rules that provide engineering challenges, such as buoyancy, propulsion, material costs and trade-offs between vessel weight and speed. The rules include a variety of prohibited propulsion methods, including some non-traditional methods attempted in the past, such as compressed gas, assistance from animals and Mentos mints.<\/p>\n

Materials for the boats must not exceed $80, and students must turn-in their receipts to prove it. Many boats on race day are seen with recycled soda bottles and lower-cost material, such as foam, instead of higher-cost wood.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating a boat that can carry an orange and race around the reflecting pond is much more difficult than it sounds,\u201d says course instructor Jacqueline Sullivan \u201989 \u201991MS<\/strong>, a UCF engineering alumna.<\/p>\n

Sullivan has taught the Introduction to Engineering<\/em> course for six years, and says the goal of the boat race \u2014 the lab portion of the course  \u2014 is to teach students the basic steps of the engineering design process by immersing them into a team-based project.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly in the semester students are placed onto a team,\u201d Sullivan says. \u201cAlong the way they learn critical soft skills and technical skills that will help them become more creative and more confident engineering students.”<\/p>\n

The experience reinforces the importance of teamwork, project scheduling, budget planning, technical writing, engineering graphic design skill, and hands-on building skills, such as soldering.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the pre-race \u201ctest day\u201d in the pond, students experience technical difficulties with their boats and work hard to overcome these challenges,\u201d Sullivan says.<\/p>\n