A 19-member team of Cedarville University students are participating in the Promoting Electric Propulsion (PEP) Workforce Development Competition. From left to right: Grant Luman, Dr. Tim Dewhurst, Dawson Propes, Kolson Kytta, David Roer, Elijah Otto, Dr. Gerald Brown, Tim Wenger, Johann Honegger, Ryan Strellman and Josh Martus. Photo provided by Elijah Otto.
Cedarville University finished second overall in a national electric boat competition, using the experience to prepare engineering students for a maritime industry shaped by green energy, automation and artificial intelligence. One member of the Cedarville team was Elijah Otto of Scottsville (a Wheatland-Chili graduate).
The team finished just 1.5 points behind Princeton University in the Promoting Electric Propulsion Workforce Development Competition, held April 14-16, 2026, at Portsmouth City Park in Virginia. Sponsored by the American Society of Naval Engineers and the Office of Naval Research, the annual collegiate event challenged students to design, build and race electric boats while preparing them for real-world engineering demands.
For Cedarville students, the competition was more than a race. It was a hands-on opportunity to apply classroom learning in design, manufacturing and testing while solving the kinds of complex problems they are likely to face in a rapidly changing maritime industry.
Although Cedarville has decades of experience in solar boat competitions, this marked only its second year in a purely electric competition. The team worked to balance efficiency and performance across multiple events, including crewed and unmanned challenges, while building on lessons from Solar Splash and its first year in the PEP competition.
“We’re not simply creating a new design, reworking and integrating systems in a way that reflects both past experience and present challenges,” said David Roer, a mechanical engineering senior from Marinette, Wisconsin.
“We’re designing a single boat that can compete across multiple competitions, which has pushed us to think more holistically about how every system works together.”
This year, the team focused on whole-system performance while navigating key engineering constraints such as limited battery energy, overheating motors and inefficiencies in propulsion systems. These challenges drove thoughtful problem-solving as students designed, manufactured and tested solutions to improve reliability and performance.
“The real goal is to prepare students for industry,” said Dr. Tim Dewhurst, senior professor of mechanical engineering. “Classroom work is valuable, but it’s controlled, you do this, this and this, and you should get a certain result. In this project, there’s no one right answer. Students have to design, figure out how to make the parts, discover what doesn’t work and redesign. That experience gives them confidence to take on new challenges, even when they haven’t done something before.”
The strong finish reflected months of design, testing and perseverance. But beyond the final standings, the competition accomplished something deeper: It prepared students to enter a changing maritime industry with the confidence and experience to meet its challenges head-on.
Team members included mechanical engineering seniors Roer; Kolson Kytta of Hancock, Michigan; Grant Luman of Rancho Cordova, California; Josh Martus of Russellville, Ohio; Elijah Otto of Scottsville, New York; Dawson Propes of Campbellsville, Kentucky; Jeremy Gonzalez Contreras of Mexico; and Timothy Wenger of Lititz, Pennsylvania; electrical engineering seniors Danny DeHimer of Ava, New York; Blake Doss of Smithville, Missouri; Jarod Savard of Fairborn, Ohio; and Hazen Swenson of Newport, Vermont; mechanical engineering juniors Matias Cavajani of Cortlandt Manor, New York; Johann Honegger of Columbus, Ohio; Ben Hubbard of Brighton, Michigan; Sam Madison of Rockaway, New Jersey; and Ryan Strellman of Hungary; and mechanical engineering sophomores Logan Montgomery of Vandalia, Ohio, and Joram Ramirez of Orange, California.
