The AOE@VT MULLET was successfully tested at Stevens Institute (https://youtu.be/Za3IY1sXGsI), in spite of an historic snowstorm delaying travel and closing the campus. Team members were all set to arrive in Hoboken on Sunday, January 24 for our week of scheduled Wave Energy Prize testing, but Mother Nature had other plans. Luckily, the folks from Blacksburg were able to reschedule their flights, and our Team Leader took the somewhat unorthodox move of driving to Hoboken in the snow, with his cat! All arrived to begin testing Tuesday. Unfortunately someone got left behind. Sue Sorlie, scheduled to take the train, was twice thwarted by Amtrak and had to concede defeat, unable to get to Hoboken at all.
Aqua image of the eastern US after Blizzard 2016. This visible image from the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite on Jan. 24 at 1830 UTC (1:30 p.m. EST) shows post-storm snow on the ground across eastern United States.
Additionally, the Virginia Tech Daily Email Message, which circulates to all faculty, staff, and students at the university, recently featured the AOE@VT team. This was orchestrated by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS), who provided all the funding for the team’s internal labor and travel in Stage 2. www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2016/02/021216-ictas-waveenergyprize.html
Team MULLET is now “on ice” awaiting the DOE finalist selection announcement, and like our fellow competitors on the East Coast, gearing up for the plunge of polar air this weekend (www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/02/10/cold-blast-polar-vortex-eastern-us/80171596/).
