NOAA Temperature Buoy

One of our projects in our marine science summer program was to create a buoy that monitored the temperature and movement of waves around Hawaii. In small groups of about four we created a homemade buoy. These buoys were created with arduinos that we programmed outselves. This was one of the first instances of learning to use an Arduino and breadboard. We implemented a wireless card that would send data to the cloud, and various sensors to track temperature and movement. All the pieces were integrated with the Arudino software. The boards and sensors were implemented into homemade buoys, which were just plastic tupperware boxes with cut holes for sensors.

After preparing the buoys, we went out to Sand Island to deploy one of the buoys. It was tied down to the coast and left to float. It was a very fun project to me that opened up my perspective on using software and hardware together to make projects that may help the world. It also taught me that nothing has to be professionally manufactured to get data that scientists and professionals use. The whole project was very homemade, but it collected the data and never failed.