Diving In

Welcome to the first post of the Fall 2009 Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash Blog! Better late than never, eh? The semester has been fairly packed as we prepare for the coming spring. Our successes and, uh, misadventures at last spring's competition only left us craving more.

First on the list was assessing equipment and getting up to speed with the state of the boat. Of course, not everything needs to be brand-spanking, shiny new for the boat to float. Along with efforts to acquire new toys, we have been salvaging what we can of last year's equipment. Or, as some of our more zealous members like to put it, "harvesting goods...like little squirrels. I believe Mike's response to that was a nervous smile and, "Okay then...well that sounds creepy."

Everyone can agree on one thing, though--money. A whole lotta money. That's what we want. For the past several weeks, Solar Splash has been networking, grant proposal-ing, and padding out budgets in an effort to fund all of our exciting endeavors. This year we were awarded a combined $1250 from Carnegie Mellon's SURG office for all proposals submitted (all of which can be found on the Kiva). As always, we are also looking into a number of other funding sources. In fact, certain unnamed (...male) Solar Splash members recently took it upon themselves to flirt shamelessly with middle-aged millionaires in the hopes that one of them would drop a big, fat check on our boat. Way to take one for the team, guys!

Never ones to turn down a chance to meet new people, Solar Splash also made an appearance at this year's SWE High School Day. The task: "explain to high school girls how engineering helped us fulfill our dreams." The general consensus was to send Paul. However smooth he is with the ladies, though, a valiant dream-sharing effort was put forth by several members, including Riddhi, Dave, Morgan, and Robbie.

More to come in future posts! In the meantime, everyone is gearing up for tomorrow's Design Review. To any alums in the area: stop by PH 125B at 5pm tomorrow, offer your feedback, and relive your college days with some free food.