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www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 65Students studying science, technology, robotics or engi- neering can put their knowledge and skills to the test at the Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge ? Europe. (SAUC-E). Held since 2006, the SAUC-E com- petition challenges the nextgeneration of engineers todesign and build anautonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of performing realistic missions. ?The event is designed to encourage students to think about underwater technology and related applications while fostering innovation and technology,? says Vladimir Djapic, a scientist at the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) in La Spezia, Italy, and technical director for the SAUC-E 2012 competition. ?It also aims at get- ting young engineers and scientists to consider careers in the field.?Djapic says that the boat basin at NURC is a very real- istic and challenging environment, open to the sea and the elements. ?It is not a pool. Participants must contend with wave action, variable visibility, salinity, and tidal con- ditions.? ?Following some spectacular nose dives into the bottom last year?and the resulting reduction of UW visibility making it extremely difficult to find and recover the vehi- cles?we?re asking the teams to install strobe lights on their vehicle. At least this way I have a fighting chance to dive and recover them if they go rogue!,? says Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nick Gwatkin, the SAUC-E event coordinator. Another development for 2012 is the creation of a NATO Engineering Support Team (NEST), which will increase the engineering capabilities of the students designing AUVs by letting students ask questions, share ideas, solutions and even hardware, sensor and software designs and code, and allow them to ask experts for advice. There will also be advice to prepare teams to oper- ate in the real-world environment found in the NURC basin. ?This will lead to an increase in the state-of-the-art in AUV design and will also enable teams to develop algo- rithms for more advanced systems,? Djapic says. Djapic says NEST will also establish a hardware library where student teams can borrow equipment such as acoustic modems. In return, the students will be expected to share the sensor integration code and sensor data they developed with the loaned gear on the NEST web page. Not only will NURC?s NEST experts be available to provide assistance where possible, they hope to also con- duct some onsite visits to helps teams at their schoollaboratories. ?We have NEST experts who can assist with software engineering, sensor signal pro- cessing, mechanical/naval architecture, and control theory, all of which are directly applicable to AUV design,? Djapic says. Teams of students from uni- versities all over Europe compete using vehicles they have designed and built themselves, and competing on a course where they must complete a series of predefined tasks. Teams are judged on the ability of their AUVs to com- plete these tasks, as well as technical merit, craftsmanship, safety of design, and fund-raising efforts. Ten teams from across Europe took part in last year?s competition. The 2011 winning team came from the University of Luebeck in Germany. Each the 2011 teams have already indicated interest in participating in the 2012 competition, and two new teams will join in 2012?The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also known as the ULPGC (Spanish Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and Team SONIA (Système d'opération nautique intelli- gent et autonome) from École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, Canada, which was the AUVSI RoboSub 2011 competition winning team. Major sponsors for SAUC-E 2012 are the Office of Naval Research and ONR Global. SAUC-E Student Teams Receive Realistic Challenges in Vehicle Construction & Operation Sure you can create an underwater robot, but can you teach it do tricks in La Spezia Harbor? By Edward Lundquist Students from Heriot-Watt University test the ?Nessie?AUV in the pool before placing it into the NURC basin for qual-ifying trials.SAUC-E '12 will take placeJuly 6-13 at NURC in LaSpezia, Italy ? www.sauc- europe.org MTR#2 (50-65) atlantic canada section:MTR Layouts 2/23/2012 11:20 AM Page 65