I have had an amazing time at my internship with SonTek. I actually knew John Horn (the other MTS intern at SonTek) from when I attended High Tech High in my freshman year. Every Friday we would go out to lunch with the guys in research and development. I got to know them very well during my internship, and I learned a lot from them.

Here are some of the things I have accomplished:

1. I built a fully functional RiverCat Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP) prototype based on SonTek¹s previous RiverCat design. The old model used an expensive and non-user-friendly radio transmitter, which needed a laptop and 12 volt battery out in the field. My new prototype uses Bluetooth wireless technology, which is compatible with laptops and PDAs. This wireless solution cut the price in half, and is very user friendly. While developing the prototype, I learned about the RS232 serial communications standard, Bluetooth wireless technology, the AT command set, schematics for the RiverCat, and about how underwater transducers can use the Doppler Effect to find river flow and depth. When powered externally, the prototype communicates via the external data port, but if it is running on batteries, it communicates through the wireless Bluetooth connection.

2.Inside the new RiverCat prototype is an RS232 Bluetooth adapter, which communicates through an antenna to talk to the customer¹s laptop or PDA. This adapter normally must be configured using about 10-12 lines of AT commands typed by hand, which are different for each adapter, since they each require a unique name and optional Bluetooth pairing instructions. To eliminate the hassle, I wrote a 270-line program in Jscript to automatically configure the Bluetooth adapter. I was able to write the program using concepts I had learned during my AP Computer Science class, even though Jscript was a new language for me. My program is very versatile, allowing the user to configure the adapter automatically, or to use full manual control. It is also user friendly because it has a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and could be used by SonTek assembly technicians or end users with equal ease.

3. Next, I developed a Bluetooth prototype based on SonTek¹s previous FlowTracker Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV). For this prototype, I had to study the FlowTracker schematics carefully‹the data flow needed to switch from the external data port to the internal Bluetooth adapter when powered by internal batteries. To do this, I built a small circuit using a special relay. This had not been an issue for the RiverCat, since it had a similar solution for the old radio transmitter.

4. I conducted Bluetooth range tests with our RiverCat out on Miramar Lake, simulating real conditions. I sat on the dock with the Bluetooth enabled laptop while Vadim Polonichko (my boss) towed the RiverCat behind him in a motorboat. Using a directional antenna, we achieved a wireless range of 2350 feet (0.45 miles).

5. I created a way for any PDA to take advantage of the directional antenna¹s range. I was able to power the Bluetooth adapter with a 9-volt battery and affix the directional antenna to the back of the PDA using Velcro. Using the directional antenna, any handheld PDA can collect data from nearly half a mile away from the RiverCat; a bulky laptop is no longer needed.

6. In the last week of my internship, I wrote documentation about everything I had done at SonTek for the engineers who might pick up my project at a future date. I wrote two procedures for configuring Bluetooth adapters using my auto-configuration program, and some schematics for rewiring the old RiverCat and FlowTracker for Bluetooth communications. I also made a PowerPoint slideshow, which gives a summary of all the work I had done, as well as a bar chart showing range test results.

I would like to thank MTS for being able to have an internship at SonTek: it was a chance of a lifetime. It exposed me to a valuable experience I know I could not have received anywhere else. This internship has reinforced my interest and belief that I want to pursue an engineering degree. I really enjoyed the challenges and rewards I received working with the engineers there. I want this kind of career path for my future.

Regards,
Ryan Luecke

I just finished my six-week internship at Sidus Solutions, Inc. It was really great! My main project was to design a camera for open ocean sea farming, but I've also had the chance to do many things that keep a small business going, such as inventory and packaging. Thank you for your inquiry!

Sincerely,
Ryan Cerniglia

I'm working in Dr. Driscoll's lab at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Everything's going well. Everybody at the lab has been super-nice and fun. I've been helping out with labeling and photographing the ocean cores that they obtained from the cruises to the Gulf of Mexico and Papua New Guinea.

David, another intern here, and I took samples out of the cores and looked at them under the microscopes. I was amazed by all the different kinds of minerals and shells we found in the cores. During these four weeks, I've learned so much about the plate tectonics, faults, sediments....etc. It has been a very enjoyable experience, and I'm sure it will get better too!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity of being a part of this program!

Debbie

Everything is going great for me, I work with Eric Pacheco and Brett Inman and we have a great time. Initially I helped put together the LBVs at Seabotix, which are the underwater cameras, in case you didn't know, and we do a lot of the building for the little things that aren't too complicated but are really time consuming. They are trying to put together projects for us right now, but everyone is really busy, so there isn't just one thing I'm working on, but I like that. And when there isn't anything for us to do, we fixed the radios and TVs and even the freezer, ha ha.

Summer Puente

For the past couple of weeks I have been working down at SIO with Neal Driscoll and his graduate students. Its been a really great experience in which I have learned a great deal about a subject that I thought I cared nothing about. Everything at SIO has been an amazing experience that I will forever cherish. Thank you very much for this wonderful internship.

As far as what I have been doing, I have been working with a graduate student named Liz with her cores from Papau New Guinea. We have sampled, described, sifted and recorded tons of mud from a seafloor halfway across the world. It is very interesting because we get to act as detectives in order to discover the source of the many minerals inside each sample. Every time we open up these cores, we find something new and exciting that we can photograph and hypothesize about. Additionally, we get to compare our cores to the seismic data from the same area.
Once again thank you for the opportunity to work with some brilliant minds for six weeks out of my life. I am in awe of the scientific community and I hope that I can contribute to its growth and development later in life.

Thank you again,
David Freed

Everything here at SIO is going quite well. Everyone is nice and helpful so when I'm learning new things or have a problem, I can find help from almost anyone around me.

I am currently working on an autonomous underwater explorer that is designed to be able to migrate up and down in the water column and record pressure and temperature data. I am specifically working on designing an experiment and creating a program for the PIC that will allow the AUE to compensate for its up or down migration as caused by the internal currents and waves. Last Thursday we went out on a boat to test a couple programs but our power supply bombed out on us so we are planning on an overnight cruise later this week, if all goes to plan.

Thanks again for everything,
Steven Larson

Everything is going great. Currently I am performing research on marine protected areas and acquiring information in an attempt to form a foundation for a marine protected network around Santa Catalina Island. I have also done some tidbit calibration as well as logging temperature data.
Thanks for this great opportunity.

Sincerely,
Nathan Whitaker

As far as work, I've learned how to use Solid Works, a 3D modeling program, fairly well. The main project I'm working on is designing and making a prototype battery pack for one of Deep Sea's products. I've also helped with some product pressure testing. I really like how my projects require "hands on" work and I get to practice my building and soldering skills. Overall, I'm greatly enjoying my internship at Deep Sea Power and Light. Thank you Mr. Nordell and MTS for giving me this opportunity.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Zhang

Brett Inman

I'm currently an intern at the Marine Physical Lab at SIO, and everything is going swimmingly. On the first day I spliced some cables for data transfer from their custom buoys and such. Since then I've been spending most of my time programming. The longest and most complex thing I've programmed was written in PHP to check a POP server for email, download the messages and any attachments, save any excel attachments to a local server, validate the data in the attachments, then upload valid data to an SQL server. I learned a lot doing this, since I didn't know any PHP when I started.

In addition to other programming projects, I've gone out in the field to see some of the equipment once or twice. I went out on Flip, a cool boat they have for research that flips 90 degrees to a vertical position and stays that way for weeks at a time.

The people in my lab are very relaxed and fun to work with, and I'm having a great time.

Louis (Alex) Eisner

So far this summer, the MTS internship has been an amazing experience that I will never forget. At SAIC I have been fortunate to work with some of the nicest and most intelligent people in the field. Not only have I gotten a terrific work experience, but I've also learned many new skills that I will be able to use in the future.

One of the more interesting things that I have been working on here is that I'm helping to design and model a deep-sea meteorology buoy and all its components using CAD and Solidworks. This buoy has a number of sensors that will be able to detect various characteristics of the water (and relay the info to a central database by satellite) wherever it is deployed. Such real-time measurements as water temperature or changes in water depth, as well as the weather conditions surrounding it will be taken. This has been the main project I've worked on, but I also helped create an inventory database using Microsoft Access that will be used as the main inventory of all SAIC's assets. Using the database, employees will be able to find out where any item is at anytime and identify it by photo. I have another week here at SAIC, and I look forward to finishing up my various projects. I would like to thank the MTS once again for this terrific opportunity.

Alex Daniele

Thanks for the interest.
John Horn