News Story

Terpedo places third at biennial engineering competition

Competing for the first time, a team of students with their University of Maryland entry, Terpedo, made a great showing at the biennial engineering design competition, the Sixth International Submarine Race in Carderock, Maryland. The team placed third in the Two-Man Propeller Driven category against veteran teams from Michigan and Texas A & M, who took first and second respectively.

This race is one of the world's most unusual human-powered vehicle races, in which custom-designed, wet (flooded) submarines powered by human crews wearing scuba gear, compete against the clock on an underwater, 100-meter course.

Led by faculty advisors, Dr. Marjorie Natishan and Dr. David Coder, the team of undergraduate mechanical students competed against 15 teams from across the U.S. and Canada testing not only their skills in design and manufacturing, but also mastering hydrodynamics, propulsion, and propeller design. Most of the testing for the sub took place in the Neutral Buoyancy Facility of our Aerospace Department.

To read more about these two teams' accomplishments, read the article on ME's web site.

June 22, 2001