The Human Powered Submarine (HPS) Team is one of many student-run engineering design teams at Virginia Tech's College of Engineering. The team's mission is to design, build, and race human powered submarines at the biennial International Submarine Races.
I was a member of HPS for three years and worked on Phantom 5 and 6. I vacuum formed fiberglass bodywork and machined drivetrain components, represented the team at engineering expos, and developed a tiered donation program for soliciting corporate sponsors. In my senior year, I led the production of our sub’s twin variable pitch propellers, a process which involved developing a working relationship between HPS and the materials science professors at the on-campus foundry, VT FIRE to cast the propellor blades, training younger HPS team members in the preparation of bonded-sand molds, sourcing an outside vendor specializing in 3D printed and overseeing the final assembly and installation of the completed propellers onto the sub.
