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Students of engineering from universities and organizations
across the country and abroad converged at Naval Surface Warfare
Center, Carderock Division in West Bethesda, Maryland, for the 14th
biennial International Submarine Races (ISR), June 25-30, 2017.
Human-powered submarines in the shape of everything from a shark
to an ice cream cone with all the fixings were raced by 21
participating teams in the 1,886-foot Deep Water Basin, which is
just one of the three sections that make up the 3,200-foot-long
David Taylor Model Basin building at Carderock.
The ISR has
been a premier science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
event for 28 years; it is sponsored by the Foundation for Underwater
Research and Education (FURE) and hosted by Carderock, the Office of
Naval Research and Program Executive Office Submarines. ISR
challenges students to design, build and race a one- or two-person
human-powered submarine on an underwater course. Former Carderock
commanding officer and current president of FURE, retired Navy Capt.
Charles Behrle, said the David Taylor Model Basin has proven to be
the perfect environment for the races over the years.
“The
first races were held off the coast of Florida in the surf,” Behrle
said. “One of our biggest concerns with ISR is the safety for the
participants, so when you’re in the surf and the winds pick up and
the seas pick up, it makes it more challenging. One of the final
races they had down in Florida was almost completely all blacked out
because of weather. The Basin came up in planning discussions and
the Navy agreed to host the event, which is great because it
provides us with a safer indoor facility that can accommodate up to
25 or 30 teams.”
The inaugural race was held in June 1989 at Riviera
Beach, Florida, born from a concept developed by the H.A.
Perry Foundation and Florida Atlantic University’s
Department of Ocean Engineering, before coming to the David
Taylor Model Basin in 1994. According to Behrle, the first
race in Florida proved very successful, with 19 teams from
academic institutions, corporations and independent groups
gathered to race their submarines and test their designs.
“This is the event that brings everything together.
The participating students have had the classroom, they’ve
had the theory and they’ve done the calculations. What ISR
adds is the actual human factor as well as the ‘What could
go wrong?’ factor,” Behrle said with a laugh. “Sometimes
things don’t go the way the numbers say they should; the
next step is focusing on how to fix it.
“Some of
these teams don’t get into the water until they’re here. So
if they’re lucky, they’ve gotten in the water somewhere in
an Olympic-size pool somewhere and at least submerged their
sub, but some of them show up never having gotten in the
water with that particular boat. So there are things that
may not go as planned. It may not go as the book said it
should, so now they’re into the real world of ‘How do I
change it? What do I learn? How do I fix it?’ Some of the
teams are extremely well-equipped with respect to the
materials and tooling to do that kind of thing on site, some
of them less so. What’s always very good to see is the teams
help each other out. Yes, it’s a competition and they all
want bragging rights, if a team is lacking something or
needs something repaired to get into the basin and have a
successful run, the other teams hover around and help.
Whether it’s providing bodies, materials or expertise, it’s
a huge collaborative effort and learning experience for all
involved.”
Today, the races have proven an
international success, with participating teams from
Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada and the
Netherlands. Universities including the University of
Michigan, Virginia Tech, the University of Washington and
even some high schools including Sussex County Technical
School in Sparta, New Jersey, and Mosley High School in Lynn
Haven, Florida, participated in this year’s races. Also
participating is an independent group from Accokeek,
Maryland, called Kids into Discovering Science, that started
as a family affair, grew into mostly home-schooled children
and is now flourishing with participants from grade school
through college. ISR is open to all institutions or groups
that want to participate.
While getting through the
underwater obstacle course as quickly as possible might seem
like the goal, the fastest time is far from the only facet
of ISR. There are 16 judges throughout the week assessing
and inspecting the work of the teams including the design,
safety and overall process for making improvements on the
submarines.
A trophy and $1,000 award sponsored by
Booz Allen Hamilton is given to the submarine team from any
design category that displays the best overall performance,
determined by a figure of merit which takes into account the
team’s attitude, persistence and resourcefulness. Other
award categories include Absolute Speed, Fastest Speed by
Category, Innovation, Best Design Outline, Smooth Operator
and Best Spirit of the Races.
“You’ll note that with
the awards we do a top overall, but then there’s also an
innovator award, and we look for innovations in a team’s
design. That’s something that we highly seek in what they’re
doing because it means they’re thinking outside the box, and
it’s a mentality that all great engineers have. We put all
those design reports in a compendium, and then we mail each
team a disk and make it available on our website, so a
fledgling team can see all these reports and get an idea of
how to construct theirs, but also get ideas about what’s
been tried before.”
The record for top speed in the
history of the races for any design is 7.4 knots. According
to retired Carderock engineer and long-time volunteer and
member of the FURE Board of Directors Dan Dozier, most of
the submarines compete in the 5- to 6-knot range, which
Dozier said is up significantly from the past. However, as
Dozier noted, it is not always about being the fastest.
“Some teams aren’t going for maximum speed, they’re
striving to have the best new innovation,” Dozier said.
“Propellers are very efficient, but there are a lot of teams
that are trying some non-propeller propulsion, for example,
using oscillating foils or wagging tails. So it’s not always
about going for the world record, it’s about using your
imagination, knowledge and skills as an engineer to come up
with something new and effective.”
Dozier and Behrle
are just two of the 77 volunteers who work to make ISR a
success. Behrle said that all of the volunteers are not just
contributing the week of the event, a lot of them spend
their time throughout the year coordinating with schools,
showing up at school cafeterias and contacting university
naval architecture programs to join in the races.
Currently, there are more than a dozen engineers working at
Carderock that have previously participated ISR. Danielle
Kolber and Charlotte George are two past participants and
engineers in Carderock’s Center for Innovation in Ship
Design who contributed as principal organizers for this
year’s races. Behrle said that while ISR is designed to be
fun, it has truly become a venue to get students excited
about engineering and gives them the experience and
encouragement to pursue careers in STEM.
More information about FURE and the ISR
By U.S. Navy Daniel Daglis, NSWC
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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