SeaWolves capture sixth in international competition!
The SeaWolves Robotics team captured sixth place in the 12th Annual Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) International Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition held at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.
The SeaWolves competed in five categories including robotic missions, technical report writing, engineering presentation, poster display, and safety inspection. This year’s competition theme was “Ocean Observing Systems: Launching a New Era of Ocean Science and Discovery.”
ROVs are the primary tool in the laying of underwater fiber optic cable, placing scientific instruments on the ocean floor and in the water column, along with maintaining these instruments once they are in place. The missions that had to be completed in this year’s competition centered on building an ROV that could accomplish many of these tasks.
The SeaWolves team is composed of both academic and career-technical students. Each team is responsible for designing, building and testing a fully operational underwater robot. This collaborative effort gave the students skills that could be immediately transferred into the work force. The SeaWolves have experienced tremendous of success in its first two years. Last year’s lead designer, Aaron Barr of Terry, was hired by the ROV service company SeaTrepid International, LLC of Robert, La.
This year’s team pilot, Cedric Lloyd of Brookhaven, was recently hired by the International ROV company Oceaneering International, Inc. of Houston, Texas. Brandon Boyd of McComb, the lead designer this year, is currently a student at the University of Mississippi’s mechanical engineering program, emphasizing ROV design.
Employers emphasize how important it is to have employees that can work in a collaborative environment and have knowledge of multiple disciplines. The SeaWolves robotics team gives students this background.
One thing that becomes clear at the competitions is that students are competing for jobs against not only U. S. students, but international students as well, all with strong backgrounds in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math). This year’s competition was truly an international competition, with over half the teams traveling from outside the United States. There were two teams from Russia, two teams from Egypt, one team each from Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Kingdom, and Newfoundland. Major U.S. engineering school such as Ohio State, Purdue and Arizona State University also competed.
The 2013 competition winner was Jesuit High from Carmichael, Ca. Jesuit has a very active robotics program that allows their students to letter in robotics. This program demonstrated the importance of support for a rigorous STEM program. The SeaWolves, also known by the acronym SURE (SeaWolves Underwater Robotic Engineering) placed sixth overall out of the 23 teams, having the fourth highest score in the mission category.