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CREATE Education have sponsored the Warwick Submarine Team since March 2023, working closely with them helping them achieve their project!
The Warwick Submarine team has been based at Warwick University since 2012. This year, they entered the prestigious ISR competition, where they had to design a human powered submarine, and then compete and race against other universities involved, promoting engineering and science to the young people who will be the future of the industry!
The building and designing of the submarine started in October 2022. Restrictions within the competition mean that the team can’t use the same submarine design in back to back competitions, so it’s a real challenge to keep the consistency year on year!
This was the 17th ISR competition, and the event was held in West Bethesda, Maryland USA in June 2023. The event was organised by both FURE, who sponsors the race and manages the volunteers. FURE wants to invest in young people who are pursuing marine related scientific and engineering research and educational opportunities. This event is very important as the skills and level of engineering are vital to the future in the industry.
We caught up with Adrian Yan, project manager of the submarine team at Warwick University, to talk about the project and how we were chosen to sponsor the Warwick University team this year. Here’s what he had to say:
“I found Create Education online and it seemed like a perfect fit! The submarine competition that CREATE sponsored is a student project. We have lots of students and need funding for them to undertake this exciting project, so we were looking for a company that could provide 3d printing support and materials.
We contacted another company and they recommended CREATE Education and said how great you were, so I got in touch with you straight away.
CEATE Education has helped us by providing us with material. You’ve helped link us with Filamentive and they were able to give us material to make the submarine too. We also kept you in the loop with everything happening on the project so you could provide help and answer any questions we had.”
Adrian did keep us in the loop indeed, through providing daily updates throughout the competition, as well as photos and videos! With Adrian’s permission, we have shared these below, so read on to find out more about the ISR competition, and how Warwick University’s team did!
Adrian’s Daily Diaries from the 17th ISR Competition – June 2023
Day 1
The past few weeks have been enormously hectic for the team, as they were assembling their newest Man-o-Warwick submarine and organising logistics to get both themselves and the completed submarine to the USA.
The ISR17 competition is finally taking place, and we would like to share a few photos from the first day.
A hull extension has been added to the submarine, alongside fluorescent tape at certain areas required by the judges. They are currently undergoing dry and wet scrutineering of the submarine and will hopefully start racing soon in the water.
Day 2 and 3
Their dry submarine check and dive checks passed on day 2. They also passed their in-water submarine test on day 3 on the first try which not many teams managed to do!
This gave them a huge advantage and got the team racing immediately, with 3 attempts in the bag. The third attempt was a completed run of 100 m and set the record for the fastest top speed of the day at 1.583 knots!
Only 2 out of 19 teams had managed to complete a full run so far.
Day 4 and 5
The team did a presentation to the judges outlining their design innovations, safety systems, and key project learnings. The judges were impressed that they managed to build a submarine in one year and ship it from the UK!
7 more runs were attempted by the team, with 3 successful runs and a fastest top speed of 1.576 knots! There was an issue with their powertrain system which they were able to solve spontaneously within a lunch break with the help of US Navy technicians, which got them straight back to racing immediately!
The team’s non-divers assisted in the recovery of the submarine after each race run, towing the submarine back to the start line to prepare for the next race!
They hope to be able to beat their record on the final day of racing!
Day 6
The day started with racing until noon. The team’s efficient preparation meant that they were able to get into the water early morning and get two race attempts in. Unfortunately, they were unable to complete the full runs to receive a race time.
The awards ceremony happened in the afternoon and they were delighted to hear speeches from various competition organisers and the commanding officer of the US Navy, Carderock Division.
11 out of 19 teams managed to complete at least one full run, and they completed 3 full runs, being the team with the fourth most number of completed runs.
They are also happy to announce that they have won the Best Design Award! This award is given to the team that presents the best design outline report on their submarine.
Well done to the Warwick Submarine team from all at CREATE Education!
If you want to find out more about the project or continue to follow the journey from the competition, make sure to check out the link down below where you can find lots more information.
INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE RACES | Human Powered Submarine Races
Do you have a project we could support?
This has been a very interesting project for CREATE Education to be involved with.
It has been great to watch from start to finish, seeing all of the progress made by the team!
Do you have a project involving 3d printing or additive manufacturing in education? Why not reach out to us to see how we can support you.
Adrian said, of his experience with CREATE Education:
“CREATE Education were very supportive and gave their best to find recourse to move the project forward, we are very grateful for the support and could not have done it without them!
We won the Best Design Outward Award, which created good foundations for the project and without support from the sponsors we would not have been able to do that.
The team involved has gained so much for themselves and also their future careers. This is great as it shows the future is very bright!”
You can get in touch with our Marketing Manager, Jo or Michelle, Head of CREATE Education by ringing 01257 276 116 or email us at enquiries@createeducation.com