I would like to congratulate Dylan Bayerl, who has been named a Beyster PhD Fellow for the 2014-2015 school year at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. This is a great accomplishment, and I know that Dylan worked hard to earn his fellowship.

I look forward to meeting Dylan within the next month or two, and I wish him much success in the future. His photo is included below.

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Speaking of photos, Ron Arnold scheduled some interesting excursions on San Diego Bay over the past few weeks while my boat Solutions has been hauled out of the water for annual maintenance and repairs. A number of my friends and SAIC colleagues have been able to join me, which has made these trips particularly enjoyable.

A couple of Fridays ago, Ron chartered one of the San Diego Seal Tour amphibious vehicles for a 90-minute tour of the Bay. Joining us were Paul Kouris, Barb Schmidt, and book contest winner Bill Proffer.

And last Friday we went out for a sail on America, which is a 139-foot replica of the yacht that won the original America’s Cup competition. This is something I have wanted to do for the past four years, and we had a perfect day out on the water.

We had quite a group on this trip, including my wife Betty, Malin Burnham, Chuck Nichols, Jim Hakeem, Mark Waldschmidt, Scott Graham, Don Wyatt, Troy Sears, Ron’s son Conner, and others. I have included a couple of photos from our Seal Tour.

— Bob