Wait a minute. What happens when the sailboard is made of paper and requires a unique design to keep it afloat?

Engineering students participating in this year's Energy Challenge hope to find out. In this contest, assembly parts are not provided and the design comes straight from the mind. The goal is to construct a sailboard made only of paper products and race it on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga., April 6.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST), Hercules Incorporated and Windsense are sponsoring the contest.

"It's about thinking differently, to make more with less," said Dr. Jim Ferris, president of IPST. "Students will test their skills by building a sailboard from raw materials using energy efficiency and waste minimization concepts that are important in the pulp and paper industry."

Georgia Institute of Technology, Miami University (Ohio), University of Central Florida, University of Maine, Mississippi State University and two teams from North Carolina State University -will take part in the competition.

Each school received a $2,000 "start up" grant to assist with the funding of their project, which requires the sailboards to be completely made from paper materials, including corrugated paperboard or linerboard.

Commonly used paper chemicals may be used in the finishing and bonding stages. Merit points will be awarded to teams that develop novel materials from wood fiber and/or develop novel chemicals from wood that are used in the construction of the sailboard.

The purpose of Energy Challenge is to increase interest in science and engineering and promote awareness of energy efficiency, manufacturing design, recycling, waste minimization, package maximizing and pulp and paper industrial processes.

A review committee will judge the sailboards on the following: gross weight, material composition, board volume, compressive strength, tensile energy absorption, stiffness, aesthetics, novelty of design and sailboard performance. The first-place school will receive $15,000; second place, $10,000; third place, $5,000.

The competition correlates with DOE's Agenda 2020 - a program to enhance the economic competitiveness of the U.S. forest products industry and to help the pulp and paper industry reach the vision of more energy efficient manufacturing processes in the year 2020.

"This competition is a long-term strategy we're hoping will get more people involved in conservation," Ferris said. "Finding ways to reduce energy consumption has increasingly become more important as the U.S. seeks new technologies to help reduce our reliance on foreign oil and meet our energy needs. Aligning research efforts with national security efforts just makes sense as this nation strives toward achieving energy balance."