MONTEREY, Calif., July 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Students dove deep with their underwater robots, but they reached for the stars at the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center's 5th Annual International ROV Competition, held last month at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Eastern Edge Robotics team from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada took first place in the Explorer (advanced level) class competition. The Marine Academy of Technology & Environmental Science team from Toms River, N.J. was the first-place winner in the Ranger (intermediate level) class competition.
Other prizes awarded included "Biggest Bang for the Buck," presented to the teams that spent the least amount of money on a vehicle that performed well. That honor went to Explorer and Ranger class teams Palm Beach Lakes High School from West Palm Beach, FL and Six Rivers Charter School from Arcata, CA, respectively. Explorer class team Long Beach City College from Long Beach, CA and Ranger class team Haltom High School from Fort Worth, TX, took top honors for design innovation or "thinking out of the box."
"I'm always amazed at what the students come up with," said Jill Zande, the MATE Center's associate director and coordinator of the competition. "Each year we present them with a new mission challenge and a set of guidelines - their creative, skilled minds take it from there."
Organized by the MATE Center and Marine Technology Society's (MTS) ROV Committee, the competition encourages students to apply skills in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and teamwork to create remotely operated vehicles (ROVs or underwater robots) to accomplish mission tasks based on how ROVs are used in the real world.
This year's competition focused on the science and technology of ocean observing system-networks of instruments that gather important data about the ocean environment. Through Ocean.US and the Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks (ORION) Program, multiple federal agencies are working to develop and implement a national ocean observing system that will collect and use data to help improve ocean health, predict climate change, and protect human lives and property.
NASA is one of ten federal sponsors of Ocean.US, an interagency federal government office chartered to develop a comprehensive plan for implementing ocean observing systems. The ORION Program focuses on science, technology, education, and outreach issues associated with ocean observing. The MATE Center and the MTS ROV Committee teamed up with Ocean.US and the ORION Program to develop the underwater competition scenarios.
NASA's Johnson Space Center hosted the ROV competition at its Sonny Carter Training Facility's Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL). The NBL is home to one of the world's largest pools, which is used to train astronauts for spacewalks and contains a full-size mock-up of the International Space Station. Forty teams of middle school, high school, community college, and university students created ROVs that competed in the NBL pool to accomplish tasks such as installing a complex network of underwater instruments.
The MATE Center's long-term goal is to improve marine science and technology education to meet marine workforce needs. The ROV competition is supported each year by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the MTS ROV Committee, and other ocean- and space-related organizations.
The next international ROV competition will be held on June 22-24, 2007, at the Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada.
For the complete list of winners, visit http://www.mpcfaculty.net/jill_zande/2006_rov_competition_winners.htm .
For more information about the MATE Center and the ROV competition, visit http://www.marinetech.org .
- - - -
CONTACT: Caroline Brown, The Marine Advanced Technology
Education Center, 401-349-4419, matecenter@carolinebrown.com
|
|
|
AScribe Newswire distributes news from nonprofit and public sector organizations. We provide direct, immediate access to mainstream national media for 600 colleges, universities, medical centers, public-policy groups and other leading nonprofit organizations.
AScribe transmits news releases directly to newsroom computer systems and desktops of major media organizations via a supremely trusted channel - The Associated Press. We also feed news to major news retrieval database services, online publications and to developers of web sites and Intranets.
And AScribe does it at a cost all organizations, large and small, can afford, a fraction of what corporate newswires charge. Click here to see how we do it