The use of student design competitions to support the teaching of marine design

Engineering university accreditation boards around the world have recently re-recognized the need for a balance in theory and practice. In the past decade there has been a strong resurgence of interest in design experience and teamwork. This is provided in student team-based design projects. Student design competitions have been developed as an integral part of this approach. The benefits of such competitions as an aid for teaching of marine design, although quite clear is in some ways controversial. In the U.S. the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers run a number of annual student marine design competitions. They are international in scope with entries from Europe and South America as well as Canada and the U.S. The SNAME design competitions are unique in the engineering curriculum, all other competitions being much broader and often focused on sophomore students, as well as high school students, as a way to develop interest in engineering. The student design committees all report to the Education Committee of SNAME. The Education Committee recently formed an Ad Hoc Group to look into all aspects of the design competition organization and conduct, which has developed a series of recommendations for SNAME for the future of the competitions. A major focus of the review has been on how the competitions can be made better for the students. The paper will discuss the benefits of design competitions as an aid to teaching design and describe the findings and recommendations of the Ad Hoc Group.