The Dive Buddy Endeavor

     That title line is essentially the entire plot of the nerdgasm of a film The Martian from 2015 featuring Matt Damon. It's a wonderful thriller about how astronaut Mark Watney gets stranded on Mars and must use his ingenuity and charming personality against some ugly odds. Yet most of what Watney does in the film/book is problem solving and engineering, so really the correct phrase should be to "engineer the sh*t out of this." Science is more about observing the world rather then solving problems. But I can see that using the word "engineer" doesn't quite have the same ring or power as verbifying the word "science."   So perhaps it was a good decision to use that line; it got some nice reviews (e.g., Neil deGrasse Tyson). I'm gonna have to engineer  the sh*t out of this. Hypothesis confirmed: definitely not as catchy.       Despite not sounding as cool as verbing science, engineering is used to generate solutions that can vastly...

Nic Ulm and Bradley Beeksma receiving the second place prize of $1,000 for the PACES Breakthrough Innovation Challenge 2018. On November 15, the Shidler College of Business’ Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) conducted the final round and announced the winners of the 2018 University of Hawai‘i (UH) Breakthrough Innovation Challenge. Nic Ulm and Bradley Beeksma,  graduate students  in the SOEST  Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering , took home the second place prize of $1,000 for Dive Buddy, a drone that eliminates the need for tow-lines on dive flags, giving divers the freedom to focus on safety and research unhindered. While diving for UH’s scientific diver course, Ulm was frustrated by having to carry technical equipment and an awkward tow-line for a dive flag, all while keeping track of his dive partner. He thought the whole situation would be a lot safer if a dive flag drone was able to automatically track and follow him from the surface, elimin...

Dive Buddy team and consultants (left to right): Melody Kaohu, Isaac Lee, Nicholas Ulm, Bradley Beeksma, and Zack Naqvi. After three intense rounds of competition, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Shidler College of Business Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) announced the winners of the 2019  UH Business Plan Competition  (BPC), sponsored by American Savings Bank. Nic Ulm and Bradley Beeksma,  graduate students   in the SOEST  Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering , took home the second place prize for Dive Buddy, their diving equipment and technology company specializing in providing tour companies with diver safety and diver identification products. The prize package includes includes a $5,000 UH BPC Award in Honor of Pioneer Billy Richardson by HiBEAM and more than $13,500 in legal, marketing, and startup support services While diving for UH’s scientific diver course, Ulm was frustrated by having to carry technical equipment and an aw...