Over the past couple years, members of the Smartfin team have been hard at work putting together a new procedure for potting fins at UC San Diego. Just before Thanksgiving break, our team managed to pull a sample fin from our molds.

Throughout this journey, our team has had to tackle many different problems, ranging from designing new molds, determining the correct fin makeup, and maintaining pressure vessels to do the potting in.

As we move into the new year, our team will now focus on refining our process, and integrating all of the knowledge from the previous efforts so that we can finally get fully potted Smartfins ready.

Many thanks to the following people who have contributed to this effort:

  • Megan Martinez
  • Theanie Baskevitch
  • Antara Chugh
  • Hannah Cutler
  • Meena Annamalai
  • Adrian Zugehar
  • Ela Lucas
  • Melissa Chan
  • Sara An
  • Michael Hobrock
  • Gus Blankenberg
  • Tommy Sardarian
  • Riley Meehan
  • Dalton Rust
  • Taylor Wirth
  • Nathan Hui
  • Phil Bresnahan
  • Todd Martz
  • Ryan Kastner

Some photos of the progress over the past couple years:

Antara, Hannah, and Meena from the 2024 Summer REU potting a fin

New potting setup at the SIO Makerspace

Finished fins