Drexel Engineering Hosts Underwater Robotics Competition
April 24, 2010 Middle school, high school and community college students will battle it out in an underwater robotics competition in the Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge. The underwater robot combat will be hosted by Drexel Engineering at Drexel's Daskalakis Athletic Center. Forty-one teams will contend in the U.S. Navy funded competition to win recognition for design excellence, presentation, and teamwork while fulfilling the U.S. Navy’s goal of increasing interest in robotics, science, mathematics, engineering and technology.
The MIT founded Sea Perch program is part of the Office of Naval Research's initiative, “Recruiting the Next Generation of Naval Architects.” The program teaches students how to build an underwater robot (called a Sea Perch), a propulsion system, a controller and how to investigate weight and buoyancy in 14 weeks through professional mentors trained by the U.S. Navy. Drexel Engineering supports the initiative in their effort to engage students in the fields of science and technology.
More than 600 students will compete to see who will win first place for their Remote Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROV) in the following categories: (1) Vehicle performance (2) Team presentation (3) Teamwork summaries and (4) Spirit & sportsmanship. Panels of external judges from industry, government agencies and higher education will evaluate the competition. Each category will have its own separate panel of judges. In addition, each team will be given a score for each event and each category and one middle school and one high school will win the honor of being the 2009 Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Champions.
The Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge sponsors and volunteers come from some of the most highly regarded organizations in the area, including Drexel University, the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE), the School District of Philadelphia and MIT’s Sea Grant Office. Sponsors provide resources including time and talent from professional mentors, services, equipment, financial contributions, and volunteers. For more information on Sea Perch, please visit the Drexel Sea Perch website.