ESCONDIDO -- Teams from the University of Michigan and UC San Diego took top honors in the 2006 Human Powered Submarine Contest, organized by the local chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The contest drew 12 entries from across the country, along with one from Canada and one from the Netherlands.

The Michigan team took first place for speed in the two-person category, achieving an average speed of 4.576 knots in the Offshore Model Basin, located in the western part of Escondido off Mission Avenue. UCSD won for the solo-operated submarine, finishing with an average speed of 3.05 knots.

Under the scrutiny of potential employers, aspiring engineers show how they put theory into practice. They design and build their submarines, working with peers and coping with the inevitable collisions between ideas and reality. That happened literally, when submarines repeatedly collided with the basin's walls.

Although the winning speeds were slower than in previous events, speed isn't the true goal of the competition, said Nip Shah, chairman of the event and an engineer at Hamilton Sunstrand, one of the event's corporate sponsors. The most important thing is learning how to do "real engineering," Shah said to scores of students gathered at the humid facility on a sweltering Sunday.

"When you have good speed records, it's because they've used the submarines three times in races before," Shah said. "They don't have to do any engineering and just do a lot of paddling. But this time, even though the records are lower, the amount of engineering, learning, and running into walls, has been great."

UCSD gained its victory with a novel fin propulsion system, "like a dolphin," said Patrick Anibaldi, team captain. The usual propulsion method is propellers, he said.

"We've been working on it for two years," Anibaldi said. "We designed it, and then fabricated it, then we had to pretty much modify everything that wasn't working. It was a lot of hours."

The value of teamwork was the most important lesson from the competition, Anibaldi said.

The University of Michigan's team started with rigorous computer analysis to pick the best sub design, said team pilot Willie Hatfield.

"Everything inside the sub was based off of engineering principles we've learned in class or picked up at these races," Hatfield said.

The races drive home the importance of these engineering principles, Hatfield said. One of those is the principle of "neutral buoyancy," that is, making the sub as close to weightless as possible when submerged. A neutrally buoyant sub allows the greatest propulsion efficiency, since no energy has to be expended keeping the sub at the proper depth.

"You understand that the sub has to be neutrally buoyant, but you don't realize how incredibly important it is until you get into the race," Hatfield said.

Greg Nelson, captain of the University of Michigan team, praised the UCSD fin-propelled submarine.

"We saw there were a couple of good subs here. We were hoping to maybe just pull third place. We're very pleased to win."

Nelson said he was impressed by UCSD's nonpropeller submarine's performance, because propeller-driven subs are usually fastest.

Ben Ude, captain of the team from the University of Washington, said he likes how the contest requires knowledge of all stages of engineering.

"It's a great chance for everybody to really get their hands dirty in terms of all the aspects of engineering, from the very beginning of the actual concept, the idea that's in the mind, putting it on paper and engineering it, and then building it, and then finally testing it and taking it to the concept to racing it."

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at bfikes@nctimes.com or (760) 739-6641. To comment, go to nctimes.com.