When the mini-submarine Triton took its first dip into chilly Cayuga Lake last fall, its anxious parents -- Cornell engineering students -- were hit by some things they hadn't anticipated. Waves.

Yes, Cayuga Lake can get rough at times, and the students, members of the Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (CUAUV) team, learned that the hard way. But by leaving the confines of Teagle pool and braving murkier waters, the students were charting a new course toward someday searching for shipwrecks, including one in Cayuga Lake.

In 2008, the experienced, competition-savvy CUAUV team began conducting experimental tests with Triton in Cayuga Lake from the dock at Wells College. It was a significant step forward for the student team that, until last year, had concentrated its efforts on building a vehicle that could excel at the annual Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) competition.

The team's 10-year track record at that competition is impressive, with several wins and runner-up prizes. Entering the annual event will still be a priority, but the team is now looking to design a vehicle that can withstand such real-world submarine challenges as fluctuating temperatures, plant- and animal-life obstructions, and, of course, rough waves. By contrast, the competition only requires the student-built vehicles to perform such relatively simple tasks as finding and touching a buoy or grabbing an object -- all just a few feet under water in a swimming pool.

"The mission of the team is learning and constantly challenging ourselves," said team leader Erin Fischell '10.

Their newest challenge presented itself last summer when Ithaca tourism officials contacted the students to see if their submarine might be able to search the bottom of Cayuga Lake for a supposed shipwreck from the 19th century.

According to Bruce Stoff, marketing communications manager at the Ithaca/Tompkins Convention and Visitors Bureau, historical records indicate that a 60-foot wooden vessel called a Durham boat had sunk in the southern end of Cayuga Lake in 1823 as it was transporting a load of gypsum. Stoff had been told by history experts that discovering the rare ship's remains would be the "find of the century."

No one would have faulted the students for laughing off the notion. Triton had never ventured outside a heated pool, and its deepest dive had been a mere few feet. Searching for a shipwreck would involve diving several hundred feet (and living to tell the tale) -- not to mention an expensive capability called bottom mapping.

But the students considered that if they couldn't build a vehicle for bottom-mapping tomorrow, or even in a year, working toward such a capability would be the perfect long-range goal for the team, say, five years down the road.

"The astronauts didn't go immediately from 'Oh yay, we can get into orbit, so let's go to the moon,'" said team member Ian Vaughn '09. "There's a whole system of steps in between."

The students' preliminary lake testing last fall uncovered many of these steps. There's the problem of waves, Fischell said, which cause faulty readings in the vehicle's depth sensors. Temperature changes in different parts and depths of the lake also caused all kinds of "weird things," she said.

Since conditions for lake testing aren't exactly ideal during the winter months, the students are now concentrating on building their next-generation vehicle, named Nova, which they plan to use in the 2009 AUVSI competition.

But while preparing for the competition, they are planning to relaunch into Cayuga Lake as soon as the weather warms up.