Held since 2006, SAUC-E challenges the next generation of engineers to design and build an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of performing realistic missions. 
The event is designed to encourage students to think about underwater technology and related applications while fostering innovation and technology.  It also aims at getting young engineers and scientists to consider careers in the field.
Participating teams must consist of 75% student members and have a faculty advisor.

From 2010 SAUC-E has been held in La Spezia (Italy) at NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC).
After the success of the two first editions, competitors will have once again in 2012 the possibility to deal with real life conditions (i.e. limited visibility and salty water) since the competition is being held for the third time outside at the NURC waterfront, which is a sheltered harbor.

The date for the SAUC-E '12 are confirmed as 6 July - 13 July. Due to a change in timings the competition will run Friday to Friday.

News on SAUC-E '12 accommodation facilities.

Download the admin notice (forms deadline 22 May).

Download the new intent to compete form.

Download the Mission Rules 2012.

Discover the new Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E) Collaborative Platform where the students from the participating teams, professors, AUV enthusiasts, government and industry partners, sponsors can share ideas and software. The goal is to increase the state-of-the-art in the AUV technology by improving platforms, autonomy, and cognition of the AUVs that participate in the SAUC-E competition.
This wiki web site forum encourages the students to post valuable comments, questions, answers, documents, software and allows for rating of the responses which will be used by the judges in giving discretionary points during the competition.
There is no better stimulation for the students to participate than the fact that they can increase their chance of winning by yet another mean!

Discover the new NATO Engineering Support Team (NEST) for SAUC-E to go beyond the state of the art in AUV technology!

For media enquires please contact NURC PAO.

SAUC-E 12 Organisers are pleased to announce that the event this year is being supported by Tritech who are offering a 50% Educational Discount to students on the SAUC-E competition (on the condition that all items purchased are not for resale).
Teams are encouraged to contact Tritech directly and quote SAUC–E 12 in order to receive their discounts.

SAUC-E '12 competition updates

Initial meetings have been held here at NURC looking specifically at issues raised in the ‘Feedback Forms’ from last year. As a result it is now planned that we will have a larger area available for the competition and we anticipate having two training areas to allow teams to run tests, this will later morph into a second competition area and we now plan to have a ‘plate event’ for those that do not progress in the main competition. The additional day should also allow for a longer preparation period which was also of concern to some of the teams.

Another response to the feedback form is the early advertisement for the accommodation, please continue the requests if you are interested and give outline numbers. This then allows me to negotiate with the Italian Naval authorities for the amount of beds. I will be sending team forms out in due course for final numbers and teams details – but no pressure just yet! We are also acutely aware of the internet issues we had from last year, while it was 100% improvement from the year before (No internet!) there was some issues with the automatic security ‘jamming’ the signal in areas. Our technical experts are ‘on the case’ but a revisionary procedure is strongly recommended in case we are unable to overcome the security problems.

Saturday is shaping up for the Welcome BBQ , so I would encourage all to try to travel and arrive Thursday/Friday. Friday will be the ‘in briefing’ day and initial setting up for all the teams and, dependant on how ‘sharp’ your team is, you may be able to get your vehicle wet In the pools! Saturday will be the first open test day and will end with the BBQ late afternoon.

For those teams that haven’t yet submitted their Intent to complete forms or paid their (refundable on participation) 500 Euro deposit I would ask that you look at sending them soon to assist me in the planning process. Finally, for those of you in the final agonies of preparation for either dissertation/project submission or actual examination - you have our deepest sympathies, grit your teeth, dig deep – the long summer is nearly upon us!!!

SAUC-E '11 winners

University of Luebeck from Germany, triumphed over 9 other teams to win the SAUC-E ’11, the 6th Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge Europe. The team’s AUV called “Hanse” got the highest score successfully completing a number of mission tasks assigned. The 2nd prize went to University of Girona (2010 Champions) from Spain with its AUV “Sparus”, while DFKI Bremen from Germany took home the 3rd prize, closely followed by ENSTA Bretagne (4th). Heriot-Watt University entered the final phase and got the “Cooperation Award”.

The other participating teams were from University of Southampton and University of Birmingham, a joint team that won the “Engineering Award”, the University of West England, that won the “Experimentation Award”, ESIEA Paris (two teams) that won “Perseverance & tenacity Award” and “Best Use of Resources” Award and Cambridge University that won the “Teamwork Award”.

An international jury of experts awarded the three teams that not only built the most efficient, reliable and compelling vehicles but also stood out for technical merit, craftsmanship, safety of design, marketing and fund-raising efforts. The winners’ prizes for the first four seeded are 4000, 3000, 2000, 1500 Euros to be used by the team to improve their equipment for future competitions. All the other teams received 1000 Euros each to encourage their work.

"As every competition, also SAUC-E ’11 was a challenge for all participants", says Dirk Tielbuerger, Director of NURC, during the award ceremony. "All teams performed with important achievements that will help them to continue with their work in the future. Overall the whole event was a great success".

Download the photos (first part, second part) of the award ceremony at NURC.

Download the general photos of the 2011 competition .