After fairly smooth travels on Monday, the competition segment of the team has arrived in San Diego. We scouted out the TRANSDEC facility, where the competition will take place, while waiting for the Proteus to arrive via FedEx on Tuesday.

This is Peter Sullivan reporting from San Diego, and I'll be adding more updates, photos, and videos in the coming days as our team progresses. Thanks for your interest in our team, and please check our front page or our RSS feed often!

CUAUV is proud to announce Nexlogic as the team's 2007 Diamond sponsor! Nexlogic is a premier provider of PCB design, fabrication, and assembly services. This year they provided our team with much of the custom designed circuit boards that power the Proteus autonomous underwater vehicle. Ever since Don Shell, Nexlogic's Director of Business Development, approached us with his company's intent to help student engineering projects, we've been impressed by Nexlogic's level of support. They truly understand the type of problems that a small engineering team faces and have committed themselves to solving them. CUAUV is therefore proud to officially announce our 2007 AUV, the Cornell-Nexlogic Proteus!

A brief video introduction to the 2007 vehicle - the Proteus was just posted on YouTube. Check it out!

CUAUV members in Ithaca this summer were treated to a 3-day visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) at Cape Cod, MA. Not only is WHOI the largest non-profit oceanographic institution in the world, it is also the birthplace of autonomous underwater vehicles, including the REMUS, ABE, and SeaBed platforms. Cornell students toured the facility and engaged in lectures and tours from the researchers and engineers at WHOI. CUAUV's new vehicle, the Proteus was also presented.

Special thanks to Mr. Jim Clark, a longtime supporter of both Cornell and WHOI research for making our visit possible; to Jessica Traynor of Cornell's Alumni Affairs and Development office for organizing the trip; and most of all to the gracious hosts at WHOI for sharing their experience with us.

This weekend CUAUV hosted a Girl Scout Workshop where four troops from the local area were taught the information they needed to earn their Science in Action Badges. The workshop included five stations where the girls learned about bridge building, cell phones, firefighters, engineers, and CUAUV in general. There was also a special presentation by an electrical engineering professor here at Cornell, Sheila Hemami, who was featured on the girl scout website explored by the girls, engineergirl.org. The workshop was an enormous success. Be sure to look for an article about it in the Cornell Chronicle!

CUAUV participated in the on campus event Bits on Our Minds (BOOM). BOOM is an annual research conference that showcases student efforts and creativity in digital technology and applications. At the event the CUAUV team displayed their new vehicle frame and information about their vision system. The event was held on February 28th in Duffield Atrium. Participation was open to all Cornell students, and community members.

CUAUV’s new vehicle for this year is named Proteus after the Greek mythological figure, the son of Poseidon in Olympian mythology. He is
famous for his ability to change shape and predict the future – a perfect symbol for our new vehicle which has morphed from the SeaMonkey into a sleeker and more reliable new model.