About the Project

Northern Arizona University mechanical engineering capstone team is competing in the 2024-2025 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC)!

The competition is structured around designing a marine-energy-powered device to serve those end users using the power of the sea. The competition features four main challenges, a business plan challenge, a design challenge, a build and testing challenge, and a community connections challenge as well as two bonus challenges, the quick pitch challenge and a poster challenge. The business plan challenge is set for the teams to identify a promising market within the blue economy and determine the best marine energy device to serve the market’s needs. In the technical design challenge, competitors will evaluate the performance requirements in their chosen blue economy market by identifying and interviewing at least three potential end users; teams will complete a detailed design of a marine-energy-powered device to serve those end users. The build and testing challenge is where the teams will build an effective prototype that will be tested in a lab or tank for performance and will deliver measured results. Finally, the community connections challenge will connect the team to the marine energy community, students, and our local community.

The competition regulations are outlined in the U.S. Department of Energy's Competition Rules Document.