LSSU students drown competitors at submarine races

For those of you who thought "watching tbe submarine races" was a euphemism for making out under the International Bridge, we want you to know that such events do actually take place.

We're also delighted to inform you that the engineering students at Lake Superior State University are national champions at this unusual pastime.

A submersible vehicle named RADAR (shown), designed and built at LSSU, recently won first place in a national competition held at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The submersible took 10 minutes and 30 seconds to navigate through a hole in a mock-up wreck of the Titanic and rescue another submersible.

That was 90 seconds ahead of LSSU's nearest competitor.

To see some of the Lake State students underwater with their entry, please click here.

The following article was prepared by Kathy Good, an LSSU public relations intern:

**************************************************************** LSSU student-designed submersible takes first place

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - A group of engineering students from Lake Superior State University took first place in a national competition with a submersible vehicle of their own design.

The engineering research project, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) called RADAR (Robot for Aquatic Development and Research), was designed and operated by the students.

It took first place in the annual ROV Design and Building Competition on June 21 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

The team was judged in five areas: documentation, design and construction, oral presentation and static judging, and the underwater competition itself.

The event was developed and coordinated by Marine Advanced Technology Center (MATE) in Monterey, Calif. "This win shows that we have an excellent engineering program and students who are capable of completing complicated projects," said Prof. Maurie Walworth, who accompanied the students to the MIT competition.

"We competed last year but did not place in the top three, so this year the students were very determined to win the competition. They put a lot of time and effort into the ROV, not to mention all the engineering design efforts." The LSSU ROV was initially designed for depths of 300 feet, Walworth said, but all the housings have been tested at 460 feet in a pressure chamber.

"We plan to continue to improve the ROV, both electrically and mechanically, and use it for future research here at LSSU," he added. The Titanic has inspired many, including scientists. This year's competition, "Lost on the Titanic: Rusticles or Bust," dealt with a disabled ROV trapped in a mock Titanic.

The students were told that a team of scientists had been studying rusticles, the rust-colored, icicle-like masses of oxidized iron formed by microorganisms in a complex and puzzling process.

While deploying devices used to collect data on water chemistry, the ROV, called RUSTI, breaks down.

The student teams were given the task of designing their own ROVs to go down and rescue the disabled vehicle trapped in the Titanic.

MATE based the setting on a 2001 incident in which film maker James Cameron's ROV was trapped and lost during an effort to film new footage of the Titanic for an IMAX documentary. The competition had two divisions, one for students new to ROV design and construction, and an open class in which students had to be willing to construct an advanced vehicle with higher voltage and amperage limits and greater thrust capabilities.

LSSU's Team Radar chose the open class.

The team was judged on its ability to navigate through a four-by-four-foot hole in the mock wreck to get to RUSTI.

The team achieved the goal in 10 minutes and 30 seconds, 90 seconds ahead of the next team, even after some small technical difficulties. Crewmember David O'Gorman said the time flew by.

"We had snags galore, but we navigated them with expertise and cool," he said, describing how the students were able to overcome obstacles of a blown breaker and too much ballast weight on their ROV to be able to pull RUSTI to the surface. "The mission went as well as we could hope," O'Gorman said. "We flew out past the 'shipwreck,' rotated and descended to the bottom of the pool. We entered the mock wreck without a hitch and had RUSTI hooked in under a minute-and-a-half. We dragged RUSTI outside of the wreck and repositioned the hooks for a more solid grip.

"Our big hitch came when we tried to ascend," he continued. "We realized that our ballast was not going to allow us to surface with RUSTI."

O'Gorman said the team left RUSTI on the bottom and brought the ROV to the surface, where they removed two lead "cupcakes" that were part of the ballast.

"The ROV descended again, snagged RUSTI, and was back on the surface in no time," he said.

The teams were timed at setting up and taking down their equipment, as well as performing the underwater task.

"After overcoming the mission problems," said O'Gorman, "it seemed like nothing to drag the 300-pound beast (ROV) out of the water. We had the cart powered and locked down in no time at all." Some of the other 11 colleges and universities that participated in the competition's open division were: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Arizona, Tucson; Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, Calif. and Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington, NC. The research project started out as a project for the LSSU chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a non-profit, technical professional association of more than 380,000 members in 150 countries. Team RADAR, consisting of six students, has worked together for a year on this project.

Five of the students are seniors and the project was qualified as their senior project, something all LSSU engineering students must complete to graduate. Members are: Jeff Harrington, a senior from Whitmore Lake; Joe McNamara, a junior from Barbeau; Aaron Parker, a senior from Woodhaven; and David O'Gorman, Mike Scates and Tom Waligora, seniors from Sault Ste. Marie.

Five of the team members went to the competition at MIT, accompanied by Walworth, chair of the LSSU Dept. of Computer and Electrical Engineering.

LSSU received two underwater navigation-systems and two underwater lift bags as prizes from the competition.

For more information about the engineering programs at LSSU, visit http://engineering.lssu.edu.

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