MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (ISN) holds an annual design competition to improve the lives of US soldiers. The contest is divided into several different challenges. Each challenge includes the description of problem currently facing US soldiers and guidelines for a solution.
I recruited a friend to help and entered the challenge to build an airborn sensor package to accurately measure altitude. It seemed clear to me that the only fitting technology for this challenge was RADAR, so we built a prototype pulsed RADAR. I'll get around to posting more details and pictures later on. It won $2K from Boeing and a free copy of RhinoCAM for Rhinoceros 3d. Not bad. We ended up getting a bit of press, too:
I also got a call from someone at Foster Miller who wanted it buy this thing... it's too bad we didn't take this device beyond the prototype stage. Maybe some day I'll resurrect this project and pull out the weather balloon testing system.
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