The Competition

The competition site: Lago Dorado Inlet, Disney Coronado Springs Resort, a manmade lake approximately 150m on a side.

Fitting out the sub beside the resort pool.

Pictured: Renaldi Winoto, Lisa Ong, James Buescher

James Buescher and Serguei Vassilvitskii haul the submarine around.

The scramble begins in finishing the AI code...

Pictured: Walter Chang and Brian Dunstan

Presenting Iron Chef Amanda in Battle Ironing Board!

They don't provide adequate cooking facilities in most hotels, and none of us felt like paying Disney Resort prices for food, so some improvisation was required. Amanda Kost hit upon the idea of using irons...

Some morale-raising pizza and cake the night before the competition.

The Florida weather hung as a constant threat and inconvenience over our heads, storming hard every afternoon.

The sub, head-on, during a pool test, looking like a mutant Cyclopean lobster, as we battle against the things the hot, humid Florida weather was doing to our equipment.

We spun up the motors successfully two minutes before our time slot. It's showtime!

James Buescher and Lisa Ong prep the submarine for the mission with the Navy divers.

The sub is lowered into the water and the run begins...

Dive! Dive! Dive!

The sub heads off in search of the target beacon...

...and amazingly enough, heads straight for the right one and hovers about the area looking busy!

The sub returns home at the end of the mission.

Professor Kornegay with the submarine.

Spectators look upon our sub after the run.

And the team picture, forever enshrined in glorious black and white...

Front: (starting from far left) Lisa Ong, Nidhi Kalra, Elizabeth Lee, Jack Chuang, James Barabas, Serguei Vassilvitskii, Vikash Ravi Goel

Back: Walter Chang, Dave Hays, Aaron Birkland, James Buescher, Renaldi Winoto, Robin Glinton, Professor Kevin Kornegay, Brian Dunstan

photo courtesy Aaron Birkland