SAN DIEGO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy says student teams from Cornell University, the University of Florida and Far Eastern Federal University took honors in its AUV competition.
The 16th annual International RoboSub Competition was conducted last month in California and was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation to advance development of autonomous underwater vehicles by challenging a new generation of engineers to perform realistic missions in an underwater environment.
Thirty national and international collegiate teams took part in the competition. So did five high school teams and, for the first time, a middle school team.
The competition involved student teams performing specific underwater missions with UAVs launched in the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific's Transducer Evaluation Center pool.
"Inspiring and encouraging today's youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is important to us at SSC Pacific, and we're happy to host the RoboSub Competition for the 12th year in a row," said Capt. Joe Beel, SSC Pacific commanding officer.
"RoboSub is a platform for students around the world to highlight their abilities and aptitude, while fostering teamwork, communication and creativity, all important attributes for a STEM professional."
