Cornell's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle team (CUAUV) topped competitors in technical merit at a national contest in San Diego, July 29-Aug. 3.

The student team competed in its ninth consecutive Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International annual competition, co-sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The team finished seventh out of 25, after earning first place in the static judging portion of the contest. Static judging is based on technical design of the unmanned submarine, craftsmanship and safety, as well as a 15-minute presentation, a journal paper, and the team Web site.

To pre-qualify for the finals, the vehicle had to perform such tasks as passing through an underwater gate and hitting a buoy.

"We were happy," said Tracy Cheung '10, public relations team leader for the group. "We really came together as a team this year, and we got a lot of freshmen involved with building the vehicle."

Cornell's entry this year, dubbed "Triton," was similar to last year's vehicle but boasted an improved design. This included flattening circuit boards and placing them on top of the vehicle, so that if battery pods leaked -- a problem in the past -- the boards would not be damaged.

For more information, visit the team Web site at http://www.cuauv.org.