From constructing concrete canoes to operating underwater robots to sailing in the Olympics, URI engineering students were busy this past year hosting and participating in competitions that tested their minds and bodies. Following is a look at how they did.

Concrete Canoe Competition

On April 24-25, 2004, students from URI’s civil engineering department participated in the annual Concrete Canoe competition. The regional competition, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), was held at the University of Hartford in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Why design a concrete canoe?  “Young engineers can learn everything in the classroom, except how to respond with creativity, daring to overcome impossible challenges,” said ASCE President Thomas L. Jackson, P.E., “These future engineers will be the ones to solve the problems of global water supply, energy and even space colonization, all of which will require bold and innovative solutions.”

This year’s URI team designed and constructed a terrific boat. “The canoe was the nicest concrete canoe we have seen constructed in as many years as I have been involved,” said Professor Ray Wright of civil engineering. 

Despite the boat’s excellence, the team did not achieve their goal of winning their ninth consecutive competition; instead, they placed second.  The University of Massachusetts, Amherst came in first place, breaking URI’s winning streak of eight consecutive wins. The team was not disappointed, however.  “It was definitely a success.  The participation throughout the whole competition process was very positive. It brought the students together,” noted Wright.

ROV Competition

On May 8, 2004, URI’s department of ocean engineering hosted the prestigious 2nd annual MATE New England Regional ROV Competition at the University’s Tootell Aquatic Center.

    Brennan Phillips, an undergraduate ocean engineering senior and the president of URI’s Marine Technology Society chapter, was the coordinator for this year’s event. The purpose of the competition is to promote the development of technical, problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills among high school students by having them design and build an underwater robotic vehicle and make it perform certain tasks.

This year’s competition required participants to have their ROVs explore a mystery reef and perform seven marine science and recovery mission tasks within 25 minutes. 

Ten high school teams competed, including four Rhode Island high schools: Rogers High School, South Kingstown High School, North Kingstown High School, and the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center.

Milton Academy and Falmouth Academy won top honors; Cambridge Rindge and Latin and South Kingstown High School came in 3rd and 4th place, respectively.

Asked if the competition was a success, Phillips responded, “It was a very, very successful competition.  All the students had a great time.  My ultimate goal would be to have it held annually at URI.”

Mini Baja

The annual Mini Baja East competition took place on May 6-8, 2004 at Ski Bromont, a ski resort outside of Montreal, Canada, and was hosted by ETS (Ecole de Technologie Superieure).

              The Mini Baja competitions simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges.

Engineering students must design, build and race an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain and water.

The Mini Baja competition lasted three days, and included safety inspections, design judging, and a four-hour endurance race.  Ecole de Technologie Superieure, the winner, completed 20 laps in the four-hour race, while the URI team completed 12.

    Although URI was not able to beat Ecole de Technologie Superieure, the winning team for the past two years, the team competed in every event and placed in the top half of every single competition.  “We were consistent and happy with our performance,” said Tanner.  “The course was incredibly rough, but that only made it more interesting and more fun,” he said.

According to Tanner, “There is no better thing to do in undergraduate engineering at URI. I’ve learned more (about engineering) in two years of working on Baja than in three years of 17 credits per semester sitting in classes… The feeling of accomplishment and achievement is much greater from Baja than from any course I’ve taken.”

 AUV Competition

On the first Sunday in August, the URI Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) team battled 18 other university AUV teams in San Diego and brought home a check for $2000, along with the respect of the judges. They finished 4th of 18 teams behind MIT, Cornell and ETS from Canada in the 7th International AUV competition organized by the Office of Naval research and AUV Systems International (AUVSI).

Under the supervision of Drs. Robert Tyce and James Miller of ocean engineering, the team worked on developing an AUV capable of achieving all of the tasks required by the competition. The vehicle, named Prowler V, was a continuation of the vehicle developed and modified over the past four years, offering increased processing and power efficiency, durability, and reliability.  The strategy for developing the Prowler for this year’s competition followed the same guidelines used in the previous designs: efficiency and simplicity. 

According to Dr. Tyce, the team struggled early in the week with system failures, placing 6th out of 18 in the static testing.  “They roared back during the preliminary round, finishing 2nd just behind MIT with impressive consistency on the course.  This after implementing a whole new optical detection system the night before, and trying out their new acoustic detections system for the first time,” said Dr. Tyce.

While URI did not place first, the team was happy nonetheless.  “The team learned a lot from the experience and should be very proud of its performance,” said Dr. Tyce.