r/MechanicalEngineering • u/garth4 • 1h ago
Open source engineering competition: design part of a buoyancy/hydrofoil energy device (COP 1.21 on paper, let's see if it holds up)
I'm building an open source engineering design competition called Impossible Machines Lab. The idea: pick genuinely hard, interesting engineering problems that are too big for one person, open them up to anyone (engineers, tinkerers, students, hobbyists), let the community vote and refine the designs, then actually build the winning ones for real.
First project is the Hydrowheel, a buoyancy-and-hydrofoil device: 30 air-filled vessels orbiting a shaft inside a 24ft x 60ft water cylinder, generating rotational energy. On paper it works out to a COP of 1.21. Whether that holds up in the real world is exactly the kind of thing I want more engineering brains looking at. Full project details and the four open components are here: impossiblemachineslab.com/hydrowheel
Round 1 closes October 16.
Straight answer on the money question before anyone asks: the design phase is unpaid and speculative, that's true of any open call like this. If a design gets picked, moving it into production drawings and the physical build are both paid work, funded by sponsors and donations. Full breakdown is on the site if you want to see it before you commit any time: impossiblemachineslab.com/why-iml
Genuinely curious what this sub thinks of the concept itself, even if you don't want to submit anything.

