On the 6^th of May, we got a tour of the Project team workspace in the basement of Upson. This is were a majority of the Engineering Project teams work, build, and design, since there is a fabrication and prototyping shop down there as well. However, I am a member of the CUSail project team, so I was already familiar with the space. The interesting part of the tour for me was seeing another team’s work and hearing them explain it. This tour was led by two members of CUAUV, which stands for Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. Every year they design and create robots that can function by themselves underwater and perform a series of tasks. I greatly enjoyed hearing about their work, since I tend to always see what they’re doing, but never have the time to go over and ask them about it.

Another reason I went was to try and experience an every day part of my life “as a tourist”. Often times after we experience something enough times it tends to get boring and mundane, no matter how unique. The first time I was down in that lab it was amazing, since there was so much activity. But after so many weeks of working down there, it just becomes another mundane part of my life. That’s why I wanted to try and see the workspace as an outsider, and perhaps restore some of its uniqueness to me. This idea of “being a tourist” is one I try to implement more, such as going to a popular tourist location in New York City where I live. Since people find the lab interesting, then I definitely should be able to also.

The small group of students guided by two of the robotics team members as they show us their lab where they produce their very own automated submarines.

Back when I was in a kid in China, I was very interested in making robots. So many of the toys I was given were robots or things that can be built from the ground up by yourself. So in high school I thought about joining in the robotics team, but due to various circumstances I did not end up joining the robotics team.

Overtime, I realized I am not exceptionally gifted in STEM and moved more and more towards literature and drama, so I guess that explains my communications major and not engineering.

Visiting the lab was very interesting as we walked past groups of engineering students in the automated underwater vehicle division construct their submarine for their competition. I have built my own computer and have a technician certification to fix computers but the true science behind building robots and vehicles is outside of my understanding.  I did however learned that this year they updated their hardware from an onbuild CPU into a hybrid CPU and GPU for better calculations during the operation as they found the GPU is better at the job. I think this was something that I had a knowledge of and so I found it interesting,

Next to the engineers were the software developers designing the programs and writing codes to operate the pilotless, completely automated submarine that will eventually be tested in the Teagle pool.

The tour was overall fairly interesting, but knowing myself and my lack of STEM capability, I can only root for my fellow students at heart.

While I was impressed by Cornell’s project team space, and by the work that the various teams, and in particular CUAUV do there, I must confess I got a little “contact anxiety” from visiting the space.

I am an engineering major who consciously choose not to join a project team because of the time commitment. I entered Cornell engineering fully intending to join a project team. “Project teams” for engineers are teams that participate in various competitions. Our tour of the project team space was led by members of CUAUV – “Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle”, which designs a sub to complete an assigned series of tasks. CUAUV is one of several project teams, which also include “concrete canoe”, “steel bridge” and a mars rover team. Each team works together to design their product – a sub, a canoe, a rover – etc. Joining a project team seemed to me like the perfect way to build my resume for grad school or a future career. But I balked when I considered the significant time commitment joining a project team. I did not believe I would be able to keep up with my courses, and ultimately I choose not to join.

I truly admire the work members of project teams put in. But visiting their workspace inspired in me a fear I imagine many other people have had during their tenure at Cornell – the thought that all my classmates are doing more than me. But it also prompted me to examine this fear, and remind myself that I created a schedule that works for me, and other people are doing what works for them, and that’s all fine.

Visiting the project team space also reminded me that maybe joining a very collaborative team extra-curricular would not have been the best idea for me. I’m a long wolf. I work in a lab in a mini-clean room. I like my clean room very much. Visiting the project team space also reminded me how much I love my extracurriculars, and how valuable it is to do something other than course work – even if balancing the time commitments is hard.

For those who have never seen any of the very impressive products created by the Cornell project teams, I would advise you to stop by and see them sometime. The members of Cornell’s project teams do exceptional work, and it’s fascinating to learn more about what they do and how.

A couple members of the CUAUV project team were kind enough to lend a few of us a tour of their team’s lab space. In Upson there is space, tools, and equipment allocated to many project teams including CUAUV. I honestly expected the tour to be a little uncomfortable and intrusive. I mean, we were going to walk around a place where people had competitions to prepare for, machines and systems to build, and of course final exams to study for. I didn’t expect to see any welcoming or smiling faces there. But I was wrong. As our CUAUV guides described their work and showed us their space, the rest of their teammates were hard at work, but they seemed so passionate about what they were doing. Some people were fine-tuning circuit boards, some were analyzing data, and some were putting machine parts together. All of them gave us intruders kind gestures as they continued to do what they had been doing. There was so much friendly, collaborative energy, and I could tell that for them it’s more of a family than it is a team. There was a massive whiteboard with all sorts of notes – thoughts, supplies to order, problems to solve, and funny messages alike. As stressful as it may be for them to spend hours on end working on their project, it was clear to me that they truly enjoy it. As the guides talked about the culmination of all their work, I realized how diverse of a learning experience they get. Sure, building an autonomous underwater vehicle does involve circuits, gears, nuts, bolts, all that typical stuff. But they emphasized that there is all sorts of cost and marketing analysis behind the vehicle. Not only is it expensive to build, but it is also expensive to test. They bring the vehicle to Teagle Pool for testing and analysis. If there’s anything broken, wrong, or inefficient, then they will have to incur the cost of replacing it. So they have to balance the efficiency and functionality of what they build with the costs of doing so. As someone who is considering the path of a tech entrepreneur, I found it very interesting when the guides talked about their team from this angle. It was a pleasure to talk to the members of CUAUV, and I’m sure that at their competition this summer they will be tough to beat.

As a Bio major, I’ve never really been exposed to Cornell’s project teams and what they do. I knew of them, but I never knew how many people were actually a part of it. When I got the opportunity to see where the project teams worked and to learn more about them, I was ecstatic. From our guides, we learned that they were a part of CUAUV, a project team dedicated to the creation of an autonomous submarine. Each year, they create a new one from scratch and take it to compete against other schools at the end of the year. Cornell is one of the best at this because they have won 7 times since the competitions first started in 2000. I realized that it is very important to learn about all the things happening at Cornell because you never know what new things you could discover. I’m very glad I went on this trip and will definitely keep tabs on the project teams from now on.