From Exploring the Deep to Hacking the Skies

TAMPA, Fla. - Feb. 3, 2017 - PRLog -- Tampa Deep-Sea X-plorers, a local team competing for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, was one of the winners in a competition to hack a pair of aerial drones. The competition, hosted by SOFWERX, took place over the past 2 months and concluded Thursday night at The Doolittle Institute at SOFWERX in Ybor City. Teams were required to find vulnerabilities in a specific type of quadcopter drone that the Institute provided. The competition was open to teams nationwide with several teams competing from out of state. The entrants and their solutions are available to the public on the SOFWERX website. SOFWERX sponsors monthly challenges intended to stimulate innovation and imagination.

Ed Larson, founder of Tampa Deep-Sea X-plorers said, "Winning a prize in this challenge was a bit of a surprise. Aerial drones are not what you would expect an underwater exploration team to pursue. I had never even flown a quadcopter until we entered this challenge. We compete in these challenges to raise money for our XPRIZE entry."

The March challenge is to develop an augmented reality application to aid small watercraft navigation. The competition is open to the public and details can be found at www.sofwerx.org.