Mesa engineering students won the Walk on Water Competition at USD on April 19. Students were challenged to create a pair of “shoes” that could both float on water and support a person across a 25m pool.

The process began in the Engineering 151 class where students designed the shoes under the leadership of Professor Morteza Mohssenzadeh. Next, students Jose Buraschi, John Wegner and Kenny Jasso built them using Styrofoam, concentrating on minimizing the drag they would have in the water and maximizing their stability, buoyancy, and propulsion.

Jose Buraschi raced around two buoys and reached the other side of the pool in 53 seconds, to win the competition.