We present our progress on the construction of a 171 Yb-based active optical atomic clock. The ytterbium (Yb) atoms, initially in a collimated thermal beam generated in an oven, are decelerated using a Zeeman slower to the capture velocity (~ 10 ms -1 ) for a magneto-optical trap on the 1 S0 → 3 P1 transition at 556 nm. This allows us to generate an ensemble of N >10 6 atoms at temperatures below 100 µK, which will be transported using an optical conveyor belt to an ultra-stable (σy ~ 10 -13 ) cavity of finesse on the order of 10 4 . Here, the atoms will be prepared in order to generate a superradiant emission which will serve as the frequency reference on the 1 S0 → 3 P0 clock transition in 171 Yb.