In context of an instrumentation course, four ocean engineering students set out to design and construct a micro-computer based data acquisition system that would be compatible with the University's CYBER host computer. The project included hardware design in the area of sampling, analog-to-digital conversion and timing coordination. It also included software development for the host computer which was to interpret the binary coded data. The project was successfully completed and the resulting acquisition system was used on a project on wind-wave interactions. This paper discusses design methodology, the assignment and coordination of task, and the details of the acquisition instrument itself. (Author/BB)