Senior Project

  While week two came to an end I was able to accomplish more than I wanted to. With my goal of learning more about business and being able to accomplish my goal, I couldn’t have been happier. While the week was filled with paperwork and business class there were a few highlights of the week. A boat launch that took place to launch it into the ocean was a pretty eventful day. When the boat was launched and about a mile offshore one of the transmitters started to die out. Luckily there's a backup transmitter that was able to send back the location. But when the boat first started having problems the office started to go crazy my brother and another guy on the team tried to tackle the problem quickly in hopes to be able to get the boat home. While the boat did make it back Friday morning with no damage to the boat we were lead to believe that somehow water must have gotten into one of the waterproof boxes before they were sealed shut. As all of these problems were going on I was able...

 While I didn't really work Saturdays I was able to work on my IUU paper a little bit. But for the most part, only worked on the week's days trying to work forty-hour weeks on Monday to Friday to allow me to have both Saturday and Sunday off. While I did work a little bit on Saturday I didn't work for very long. This allowed me to decompress and relax after going all gas and no brakes throughout the week.   

 With my two weeks being up and it being my last day there wasn't much that was done. While working nine to five almost every day and having a pretty set schedule of what I was doing every day it was pretty nice to just relax. I did go into the shop one last time for only an hour to help clean up before I had to leave. While I enjoyed my time in San Deigo I wish I could've stayed for longer.   

 With time winding down on my time here and my paper coming to an end final touches are starting to take place. The boat that was sent out yesterday was retrieved and escorted back to the boat landing. While the boat was being loaded up another major company within autonomous boats was at the boat launch testing out one of their newer boats. To end the day off a small party was being put into place for my short time here in San Deigo. While there are a few more days left most of the guys in the shop won't be around.   

 Yesterday was filled with a fair amount of ups and downs. To start the day off there we launched another boat out into the oceans and it seemed to be following it path correctly. As time went on the boat soon was far enough out to see that it had to use satellite data retrieval to keep in contact with the boat. But the boat seemed to be auto-correcting itself as the day came to an end. While this pretty much took up my whole day just due to the fact that the boats cost a pretty penny. It should be coming back on the 20th sometime in the afternoon.  

      Wednesday was almost a pretty typical day. I did a little bit of work on my IUU paper along with helping with whatever needed to get done. But one little trip took a little more than I had thought it would take. When testing the boats in the water there's a course that they follow and if need be it can be controlled and taken over by an RC controller that we had. While everything went smoothly I was told that the trip would only take one hour but turned into three. While this wasn't really a problem and we did find some things that could be looked at I did get burnt pretty badly.  

 While today was pretty slow there was on main thing that stood out. As most days have gone so far there was a few things that needed to get done around the shop and office. Such as cleaning, rearanging things and helping just move stuff around like materials and boats. But there was another full team meeting to hlpe figure out what needs to get done. Orders fo thing that needed to get put on the boat or just things around the shop that need to be finished. While the next few days should be more interesting with boat launches planned and all of that sort. 

 Just as the past couple of days before I've been working more on my IUU fishing paper. There are certain spots within the paper that need to be worked on. While this does take up a majority of my time just due to the fact that the guys around the shop do need the data that I'm finding I was able to do some small other things. I sat through another business call in the morning which I can't really talk too much about and was able to be a part of a small team meeting about goals for the week. To end the day off I was able to do a little bit of work in the shop. Really most of my days are almost the same with the same hours and the same day plan.   

  Throughout the week there's definitely a lot that I have learned. While looking into the IUU fishing industry, there is much more to the operation than we were told about. One of the major ones that I have been looking into is how the autonomous boat industry is working to help destroy the IUU fishing industry. With companies like openocean and saildrone seem to be leading the charge in the autonomous boats combating IUU fishing. I have honestly been surprised about how this industry works. From what I have listened to and watched it seems to be that large companies look at the smaller companies to risk it all to see if they can make a product and if the product seems profitable they look to buy the company. I truly have enjoyed my time here so far, listening to the business calls and looking on and seeing how the whole operation works. When I first go there I didn’t really know how things would play out because it's always super nice out and the ocean is literally just a f...

  Just as the past couple days it was just another grind to get stuff done. The IUU fishing paper that I've been working on is sitting at about three and a half pages. With the important business people now gone as well there was some other work that needed to get done. As you can see three monster energy where drank to help accomplish these massive goals. Mainly just picking stuff up around the shop and moving some of the boats around to make some space to for other boats that are under construction to get built. To end things off there was a couple business calls with various companies looking for a partnership. 

 Most of the day was filled with a business meeting involving a pretty large company within the autonomous boat market. We had to launch a boat pretty early in the morning to be able to show the capabilities of their product. When all of the meetings were over it turned into every other day. Working on the IUU fishing paper. Along with getting some other things done around the shop like moving boats around to make room for new concept models.  

As the past two nine to five days have gone it was almost the same thing. There was a fair amount of office and shop rearrangement and clean up that needed to get done for the important business people coming tomorrow. Along with shop rearrangement and clean-up, I got a fair amount done with the IUU fishing paper. It seems that some of the major problems are around Africa due to waters not being able to be patrolled. But to end the day off were preparing one of the boats to be launched early tomorrow morning. 

 With another nine to five day, there was a lot to get done around the shop. With some very important individuals with a possibly huge business proposition coming on Thursday, there was a lot of cleaning and preparation that need to get done. I ended up making a quick drive to IKEA in my brother's stick shift truck (I didn't stall once on the drive) to pick up a ninety-eight-inch table for the shop. We had a full team meeting to catch up on what happened last week, and what needs to get done with the week. And to end things off I ended up sitting through a business meeting with a satellite company out of India along with learning about control systems. 

 To start things off I got into Las Vegas Sunday afternoon with a five-and-a-half-hour drive to San Deigo. After my brother and I got into San Deigo at 2am it was off to work at 9am to start everything off. After spending the first hour of the day just cleaning up around the shop and getting to know everyone the real work began. IUU fishing (pretty much just illegal fishing) is the main subject of the paper that I'm currently typing up for them.