On Saturday, March 6, 2010, Girl Scouts from all over Upstate New York came to Cornell University to earn their Science in Action Badge. This is the forth year the team has run the event and it has been our largest yet, with participation from 12 troops and about 80 girl scouts. The girls had the opportunity to rotate through 5 stations led by various team members, including one station with guest presenters from the Cayuga Fire Department. The final station brought all the girls together to design and build the tallest tower out of newspaper and scotch tape. Thanks to all the troops that attended our workshop. We hope you had as much fun as we did!

Pictured above: A girl scout showing off fire gear.
Pictured below: Erin giving a tour of our lab and team’s handiwork.

More pictures can be found in the Girl Scout Workshop 2010 gallery.

On Sunday, February 21st, CUAUV celebrated its first place win at the 2009 AUVSI international competition and showcased its vehicle, Nova. The attendees had an opportunity to see Nova in action, view slideshows depicting the team's history, and meet members of the 2009-2010 team. The Nova Showcase event was a success with a big turnout.

CUAUV will be hosting an Open Pool Test on Sunday, February 21 from 5:30-7:30pm at Teagle Pool. The team will be showcasing its vehicle Nova, which placed 1st in at the international AUVSI competition. Tasks on display include shooting torpedoes. Light refreshments will be provided.

CUAUV continues to make progress on all fronts. Machining continues on mechanical parts. Battery machining is nearing conclusion while frame machining is done. CNC is in progress. Waterjet cutting will happen next week.

Electrical design and manufacture is also going well. The actuator, switchbox, and GPIO boards are in the population stages and the serial, sensor power, merge, and thruster boards have been ordered.

The software team is making progress on the four-colored window and hedge for the new mission, and will be running a full pool test on Sunday to test their new algorithms. Below is the latest CAD rendering of Tachyon.

Tachyon, CUAUV's 2010 vehicle, is coming along nicely. We expect to have our first full vehicle control test on April 4. Below is a rendering of the vehicle's mechanical structure without shrouding.

CUAUV held its first pool test of our spring semester on Sunday, January 24. We tested all Nova systems to make sure everything was working, and took pictures of some new mission props: the 2x2 window we hope will be in the 2010 competition mission as a torpedo launching task. Pictures can be found in the pooltest 1/24 gallery.  

CUAUV has voted to name its 2010 competition vehicle Tachyon. Tachyon is a theoretical "sub"-atomic particle that travels faster than the speed of light.

CUAUV is pleased to announce that MicroStrain will sponsor our team for 2009-2010! MicroStrain has generously donated a new 3DM-GX1 sensor. This sensor will allow our new vehicle to output its orientation better in dynamic and static environments.

On Saturday, October 17 CUAUV hosted a Balloon-Powered Boats Challenge for high school students participating in the Diversity Programs in Engineering (DPE) Prospective Candidates' Weekend. Students were split into groups of two and collaborated with CUAUV team members to create a balloon-propelled paper boat. To promote creativity and innovation, students were given limited time and resouces consisting of only one sheet of newspaper, an arms length of tape, a zip tie, one straw, and one balloon. The high school students enjoyed working in CUAUV's lab workspace. They had the opportunity to learn about the team and pose questions about Cornell Engineering as a whole.

On October 4, CUAUV ran its third Macrophyte growth survey in the Southwest end of Cayuga lake off of the Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom boat the Haendel. Nova ran a long transect to determine the deepest depth of plant growth, then was taken back onto the boat to take pictures of the lakesource cooling outflow diffuser.