Going to San Diego is always a good time. Getting paid to go to San Diego is even better. Finishing in the top 5 in a technical competition, well, that's downright sweet. Once we got to the competition site with a vehicle that
had sustained some significant damage in transport, we realized that everyone else was in the same boat as us. Walking around the site was a great time - talking with other engineers, looking at designs, figuring
out how other people tackled the same problems. Everyone was very friendly - when our vehicle flooded (AAAAAHH!), UC-Boulder lent us a heat gun to dry out the electronics. One of the teams helped us troubleshoot our sonar.
In the end though, it's all about the competition. With San Diego being a Navy town and the facility being a Navy
facility, a lot of people were rooting for us. Most other teams had post-grads working on their respective vehicles - we had two undergrads, a 2/C, TSD's Joe Bradshaw, and CAPT Nicholson. 5th place isn't bad. But the best part was watching my senior design project - a system of sensors, computers, thrusters and who knows what else - work as best
as it could. There's nothing quite like the feeling when your vehicle performs as it's supposed to. What was the
second-best part, you ask? Getting one of those huge checks. Where would you endorse it, I wonder?
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