Hello, my name is Jon Baum, and I am a Professor of Engineering at an Arizona University. At the beginning of every year, I assign my students a problem that has to be solved, a class project, if you like, and at the end of each year, I take and frequently accept proposals from the class of that year about what the next year's project should be. One particularly intelligent student this year suggested that the next year's class should have the problem of building a fully automated submarine. I immediately seized upon the idea, as it presents numerous challenges, as well as being quite interesting from an aesthetic standpoint as well as an engineering one. The proposal was as follows (paraphrased, and with minor adjustments by myself): A competent and elegant solution must be reached for the following problem: Construction of a working submarine, not exceeding in length 50 centimeters, in height and width 15 centimeters. Said submarine must be able to attain a depth 100 meters below the surface of a body of fresh water. It also must be fully automated, requiring no direct control, and capable of responding to stimulus competently. It must be seaworthy enough to withstand with no repairs a vowage of six weeks, carry enough sensory equipment to navigate, enough computing power to avoid detection, and it must be able to carry a payload (e.g. a camera or a dud missile) and be able to deploy that payload or use it on its six week voyage. It must also be able to recharge its batteries or refeul efficiently and expediantly. Put bluntly, my problem is one of funding. I was hoping for my university to fund me, but they are not sure that the investment is a wise one. I do not want to burden my students with matters of pedagogical solvency, nor do I want to foot the bill entirely by myself. My question is, in the opinions of those who read this: What price do you think such a device as I have here described can fetch on say, eBay?
- posted
18 years ago