Tulane students engineer unique aquarium art experience
September 26, 2025 9:00 AM | Molly McCrory mmccrory@tulane.edu
Bolt, a cownose ray at Audubon Aquarium, is the most enthusiastic painter in the Shark Discovery touch pool.
With a flick of her wings and a nudge at a snack-filled, bright green ball, a paintbrush moves across a waiting canvas. More movements by Bolt and her tankmates result in a colorful abstract work of art.
This unusual combination of art, engineering and marine life began with two Tulane University chemical engineering students, Jinsy Hardison and Eric Jackson, who designed the interactive tool for their service-learning class last spring. Their goal was to create something that would provide enrichment for the stingrays and a memorable experience for guests.
The students put a bright green ball on one end of a stick — a dog toy the stingrays have played with before — and a paintbrush on the other.
The stingrays, with names such as Princess, Pumpkin and Jingle Bells, glide over as soon as they see the telltale green ball enter the pool. It is a sign that playtime, which is also snack time, is near.
“They’re very playful creatures,” said Hardison. “They kind of play with their food, which is a fun element of their personality that we could use when we were making this.”
The ball is stuffed with mackerel, capelin and other treats. As the stingrays slurp out the food, they nudge, roll and bump against it.
The movement translates to the brush, spreading paint across a canvas visitors hold as they stand by the side of the pool.
“Anybody who wants to can hold up a canvas and choose the paint colors they want and ‘paint’ a picture from the stingrays’ movement,” Hardison said.
Immersive Research
The project began when aquarium staff asked Hardison and Jackson to design and build something that would engage stingrays and aquarium guests and would be safe for the stingrays to interact with on a regular basis.
“We settled on the idea of creating a device that not only allows guests to interact with the animals in the touch pool but also have a personalized experience and take home a souvenir,” said Hardison.
The students immersed themselves in research. They looked at the best materials to use, the feeding habits of stingrays and what rays tended to find most engaging.
They settled on high-density polyethylene plastic, or HDPE, commonly used in aquariums because it doesn’t degrade with exposure to saltwater. It is also sturdy enough to withstand the wear and tear of the cownose rays, white-spotted bamboo sharks and other animals in the touchpool. Starting with a plywood model, they adjusted the design through several iterations until they perfected it. Once the design was done, they used a waterjet cutter in the Scot Ackerman MakerSpace on Tulane’s uptown campus to construct it.
“We took advantage of our peer resources, people who know how to use the equipment better than we do,” said Hardison. “And our professor, [Katie] Russell, was amazing. She gave us some of the technical knowledge that we may not have had.”
Once the interactive exhibit is staffed, visitors will be able to take their own stingray work of art home with them.
“I think service learning is one of the best ways that a student can learn,” said Hardison, “because it not only helps you better your technical skills, but it also incorporates your personal passions and the love for the New Orleans community that we all share.”
