Students sending Sailbot across Atlantic for record-breaking crossing

A group ofambitious students and recent graduates from the University of British Columbia have taken over a small corner at the Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club in Conception Bay Southto work on their Sailbot.

The robot boat is named Ada, after Ada Lovelace,known as the world's first programmer.

• 'Sailbot' could make history, say UBC engineering students

But the more than five-metre-longsailboat stands out when compared withother boats docked at theclub.

Covered with solar panels andfilled with electrical wires and boards, it's able to sailitself.

"It makes all of its decisions on itsown," second-year engineering student Cody Smith says.

It will be a little bit of a scary feeling not seeing her every day.- Vivian Cheung

"There's no control, theres no [remote control], we don't follow behind it. We just say, 'You're here and you need to go here,' and she'll do the rest. She'll take care of all the sailing."

The goal is to have the boat leave the waters off Newfoundland and make it all the way to aIreland somethingfellow researchers havetried,but never accomplished.

"This has been attempted by 18 teams in the past, I believe, but nobody has been successful so far," studentVivian Cheung said.

"So we are hoping to be the first ones to do it and break the world record for longes autonomous sail."

Plenty of hard work

It has taken the university students three years to get to this point in the project, which has been financed through sponsors and donations.

Cheung has been along for most of the ride, and said all the work has been done by the students, "from conceptual design to the physical construction of it."

"Everything is hand-built by the students, as well as all the code on board is developed by the students," she said.

Despite all the hardwork and long hours working on the Sailbot, being a part of theteam didn't help her graduate from engineering school this past May.

"It's not a class project. We are not getting school credit for an assignment, we are not getting paid," she said.

"A lot of students have just forfeited their summer. There's13 of us working on this boat, full time, this summer."

Weird to not see boat every day

Ada is undergoing last-minute testing this week and the team hopes to get the Sailbot in the water on Monday with its sights set on the Irish coast.

After years working on the boat, Cheung said it will be hard to say goodbye.

"It's kind of unreal. It hasn't really hit me yet, in terms of, we are probably saying goodbye to her in about two weeks and we won't see her for another five to six weeks," she said.

"It will be a little bit of a scary feeling not seeing her every day."