Ultra96 Beginner

Hi Everyone. I have a senior design project in which my group mates and I are attempting to create a computer vision system using the Ultra96-V1 board. My school has provided me with the microcontroller and I am having issues booting Linux. I am supposed to be working strictly on hardware for said project; however, as of late I have been thrown into the fire and asked to help with the software. My job is to get Linux up and running on the board. From my understanding, it should come pre-downloaded onto the chip that came with the microcontroller. With that being said, I followed both of the startup guides on the 96board website and nothing happened. In the one startup, the WIFI network never showed. In the second startup, Linux never booted and nothing was displayed on my monitor. I downloaded and installed the Ultra96 SD Card image onto the SD card but still nothing happens. Can someone please help guide me through this process?
Thank You and sorry for the lengthy explanation