Efficiency is a key component to Engineering.  One way that Engineers work on projects in the most efficient manner is through a process called the "Engineering Design Process". 

The process contains the following seven steps:

DEFINE THE PROBLEM

    In every situation in life one must determine what exactly is the problem in front of them, and what needs to be solved.  Our group determined the problem to be a multi-layered one.  First of all there is the obvious component of building shoes that will meet the following requirements: flotation, stability, maneuverability, and creativity.  Secondly, our group determined that group cooperation, communication, and understanding was also a large problem to be dealt with.  A third problem that presented itself was the time constraint that comes along with any project.  In order for our group to make any progress we first had to understand the problems that were facing us.  Without this first step, the project could be chaos.

GATHER INFORMATION

    Although a lot of people think they know everything, it is very important to gather a substantial amount of information about the problem that is facing the team.  At this point in time, our group began research on the laws of flotation, materials that could be used, the overall rules of the project, team members' schedules, and project expectations.  This step is crucial because the research that is done can lead to the quality of the "creative solutions" that appear in the next step.  Also, the sooner information is gathered, the sooner one can move on to the next step.

GENERATE CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

    Once information is gathered it is time to figure out how you are going to solve the problem that is facing you.  Our team generated three original designs based on personal opinion, personal experience, and the information that was gathered during step 2 of the Engineering Design Process.  During this step we drew rough sketches of shoe designs, and discussed possible materials that could be used during the construction process.  An additional problem that comes along with materials is that of cost.  All materials both bought and donated needed to be under the sum of $100.  During this step it is important for the team members to be accepting, encouraging, and understanding of other group members if the best design is desired. 

ANALYZE AND EVALUATE POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

    Brainstorming is often the term used for the "Generate Creative Solutions" step in the Engineering Design Process, and there comes a time when the brainstorming must end.  When ideas have been put forth the team must then determine which components of all the ideas are going to come together to produce the most desired result.  As a team we then had three designs from which to choose.  When analyzing these choices we looked at items such as: flotation, stability, propulsion, maneuverability, ease of manufacturing, and resources.  We also considered the pilot's physical state so that the shoes would be custom to the pilot. 

CHOOSE A SOLUTION

    After analyzing the choices our team decided to use a design that incorporated a board attached to four 5 gallon water storage containers with scoops attached to the bottom of the water storage containers for propulsion.  As a group we felt that this design would give the best results.  Also all the materials needed for this were readily accessible.  In fact during this step, we looked into 3 different sources for the water storage containers.  Those sources were some individual students who happened to have these containers, The Home Depot, and a company called eHydrate.  The rest of the materials we were able to find at The Home Depot.  Our goal as a team was to choose shoes that were going to be effective and easy to manufacture so that we could get them built with enough time to test and revise our design.

A computer generated drawing of our original shoe design:

COMMUNICATE PERSUASIVELY

    The Walk on Water project is actually quite large in magnitude.  There really are a lot of things that need to be done.  Luckily, we worked as a group.  In a group communication is a key component.  The members of the group needed to cooperate and divide up tasks evenly so that when the group met again several tasks would be accomplished.  When working with a team it is important to be precise and to make sure the other members of the group understand each other.  As a group we met once a week and divided up tasks so that the other 6 days of the week the project could progress. 

IMPLEMENT, TEST, AND REVISE

    After all the planning and organization, it is time to create a final product.  Our group began construction with the base of the shoes.  Even at this point we had revisions to our original design.  The 5 gallon water storage containers we found were too expensive and were difficult to get a hold of.  We decided to go with six 2 gallon buckets with sealed lids that were connected using plastic ties, on each shoe.  Later we found out that we were going to need 8 buckets on each shoe.  Originally the pilot was going to be attached to a board that was secured to the 8 bucket base on each shoe with snowboard bindings and boots.  Our team then realized that this idea was not very safe and it also exceeded the cost limitation.  Soon after our team decided to add a propulsion system using a wooden framework, plexi-glass rectangles that operated on hinges to provide resistance.  Things seemed to be progressing, however we were still having difficulties with stability.  After a few test runs at the USD pool we decided to change the arrangement of our buckets to enable better stability.  By the day of the competition it would seem that we were ready to walk on water!

Photos of the building process:

MATERIALS AND PRICES