This page provides detailed plans for the creation of the competition apparatus. The apparatus can be broken down into four basic components.

The underwater rockets are fabricated specially so that they may be fired underwater. This page provides a list of materials necessary to create the rockets, mechanical drawings, the process used to make the rockets, and experimentally obtained thrust curves for each of the motors used.

The encryption program provides a GUI that the students can use to view the encrypted code and enter their results and the encryption algorithms described in the tutorial. This page will show you screen shots of the interface, a description of how the program is to be used by the students and the judges, and include all programs to create the encryption program so that you may download the files and use them "as is" or modify them for your own design competition.

The computer interface is the program that detects if the decryption result is correct and sends a signal to one of two parallel ports indicating that a correct decryption has been entered. On this page, you may download the files and use them "as is" or modify them for your own design competition.

The electrical interface determines which computer "won" the decryption contest and either sends a signal to launch the rocket or prevents a launch of the rocket until a manual override button is pressed. This page includes a block diagram of the system, a detailed schematic including all parts used for our implementation of the interface,  the Verilog Code used to implement the state machine used in this interface, and a description of how to use the system.

The launch apparatus is the apparatus that holds the rocket, holds the water column, and guides the launched rocket through the water. Mechanical drawings and a description of how the apparatus should be constructed and used is included on this link.