Following the success of the first ShipDX edition, this year we did our best to overcome every single expectation big time. Might we just say, we may have outdone ourselves! But don`t take our word, look at the facts!
The Theme
This edition was centered on giving the students a much more practical sense of what the job really looks like from the inside. In order to do this, the proposed theme was designing a fishing vessel`s hull to fit the given parameters, aiming to reach the minimum forward resistance possible. To top it off, not only did the participants have to design using software tools and their personal knowledge, but the finalist teams had to build their scale models with their own hands and run them in the Faculty`s towing tank, to verify their results.
The backbone of the competition was developing the students` practical skills, making them feel like actual engineers, with problems to solve, decisions to make and technical input to bring to the table. Not only did they have tasks to accomplish, but all of them were limited by deadlines and the teams had to function at their best, in order for everything to work out as desired.
The Competition
The competition was announced and started receiving applications at the end of February. Unlike last year, this time the teams had a different structure: it was mandatory that each team included a sophomore, alongside two juniors of different majors in the field („Hull Design” and „Systems and Equipments”). Happily, 11 teams registered and embarked on this adventurous journey.
The qualification round that took place at the beginning of April determined the 6 finalist teams, based on their design choice, reasoning, innovation, and the way they presented their ideas. Afterwards, their 3D designs were refined and sent to a CNC machine. This resulted in raw scale models that were further glued, polished and painted morning, noon and night, for a week, by the competitors.
We are happy to say that the week they spent grinding in the workshop brought them all together, raised their team efforts and almost took the competition out of it. Everyone pitched in on their fellow teams` models whenever they got a moment to help, they all bonded and had a great time. It was great to see such a united group and a pleasant work evironment, that they created themselves.
When all was said and painted (get it?), the models were ready to take a dive in the towing tank, to measure their actual forward resistance. Although the students took part in this process and even learned how to operate the tank`s equipment, they were unaware of the results.
Finally, the big day came at the end of May. The spotlight fell on our finalist teams: they presented their months` work in front of students, teachers, sponsors and partners. Some of them were tried by powerful emotions, reliving the journey they took from the very beginning and talking about their hard, tireless work, but they did keep it all together and delivered outstanding presentations.
The decision
The teams were scored on technical aspects such as compliance with project requirements, presentation format but what mattered most were their towing tank tests results.
There were indeed changes among the order that first three teams walked up the podium, caused by a set of factors taken into consideration by the jurors.
The Winners
1st Place – 1500 € – Dao Ship : Mihaela Angela Ciuraru, Marius-Ștefan Mihai, Nichita Sava
2nd Place – 1000 € – Protoship : Cosmin Buti, Valentina Stroiu, Nicolae Bîlhac
3rd Place – 500 € – Novice Crew : Iulian Radu, Eugen Magadan, Ana Podgoreanu
The Future
We take pride in what ShipDX 2019 turned out to be. This competition has only wrapped up its second edition and is already breaking barriers, changing the way students see the industry, and the way we all see the educational process. As the years go by, we get a deeper understanding of the importance of hands-on approach. To quote one of the finalists, „Participation to ShipDX made us realize that we can build something starting from almost nothing and that we can do more than we can imagine. It was like an impulse for us to get to work.”.
We can only promise that we will work even harder to make the following ShipDX edition bigger and better. And since we have already witnessed what kind of motivation and eagerness to learn this whole adventure has awakened in our students, we are excited to announce that partnerships are in the works to get other Universities involved in the competition. Bringing as many students as possible this close to the real industry is essential to the responsibility we all have in shaping tomorrow`s engineers, and with them, the world they create.
So bear in mind, ShipDX 2020 goes international! Regarding as much Universities, as sponsors. Join us for the ride!