One man's trash is another man's transportation.
A group of ASU engineering students will see if that theory holds water when their cardboard boat sets sail on Tempe Town Lake in the 8th Annual Rotary River Rally this Saturday.
Over the last two weeks, the team has tackled the task of attempting to build a watercraft out of cardboard, tape and other household materials that will be able to navigate a 200-yard race-course faster than more than eighty other entries.
Junior Ben Wells, a resident assistant in the Fulton School of Engineering's Living and Learning Community in Manzanita Hall, participated in the event last year and will serve as team leader for the team composed of his residents.
His group's entry will improve on last year's stylish entry dramatically, Wells said.
"[Last year] we were sponsored by 101.5," Wells said, "So we had a nice little sound system in it."
Once the boat hit the water, however, all bets were off, he said.
"It fell to pieces," Wells. "Some people abandoned ship."
Preliminary designs indicate that this year's entry will be of the Viking variety, Wells said, complete with a large dragon's head at the front of the ship.
"It's gonna be big," Wells said.
While the Viking ship isn't necessarily designed for speed, Wells said, the group has a shot at claiming another of the River Rally's awards; Most Spirited, Best Dressed Team and the coveted Titanic Award for the most spectacular sinking.
The idea for a cardboard boat race originated in 1974 at Southern Illinois University, according to "The Great Cardboard Regatta Circuit" Web site.
Richard Archer, a professor of art and design at the school, designed a final examination for his class that required his students to build boats out of everyday objects.
Archer's idea morphed into an annual event at SIU, and now more than 100,000 spectators attend cardboard regatta events in 15 cities annually, the site reported.
Last year, 8,000 spectators attended Tempe's free cardboard regatta event, which is sponsored in part by the City of Tempe and the Rio Salado Rotary Club.
Chipotle will donate food and service to the event, with proceeds from food-sales going to the Thomas J. Pappas Schools for the Homeless.
Entry fees from participants are also donated to the charity.
Expertise in engineering doesn't necessarily help with building a cardboard boat, Wells said.
But the event does fall in line with engineering students' interests, and provides them a creative outlet away from the classroom, graduate student A.J. Montes said.
"I think the engineering students are more psyched on it than others," Montes said. "They're already hammered by finals. It's an extra curricular activity that's somewhat engineering-based."
Races run between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. April 21, immediately followed by the awards ceremony.
Reach the reporter at: nathaniel.lipka@asu.edu.
