NAVSEA Activities Challenge Students to Build Submersibles

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Panama City and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) personnel teamed with their local communities to promote science, technology and engineering (STEM), July 26-30.

The educational partnerships encourage students to join the Navy's science and engineering workforce, utilizing the Sea Perch program. Sea Perch is an underwater robotics program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.

NSWC Panama City and Bay County Partners challenged high-school students at the Panama City Girls' and Boys' Club to build remotely operated vehicles.

The camp used the Deep Water Horizon oil spill as an example to challenge students with a real-world problem-solving scenario. Students were then required to submit proposals and build miniature engineering prototype solutions to help with cleanup of contaminants from the spill.

"We built submersible remotely-operated vehicles as our prototypes to help clean up the oil," said Jazmin Lugo, Mosley High School student. "But first, we had to have vehicles that were equipped with sensors to detect the oil. So, the intent of this project was to teach us by having us experience some of the challenges engineers face when they develop equipment."

"The camp was part of this year's National Defense Education Program (NDEP) Advanced STEM Camp," said Ed Linsenmeyer, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) coordinator.

"These students literally built the Sea Perch from raw materials. They were not given kits that were pre-packaged. They were given design requirements and had to build it themselves," said Ginger Littleton, Florida State University-Panama City's grants specialist and STEM coordinator.

Sea Perch will become a larger part of the NSWC Panama City NDEP program in the next two years with pilot programs planned within selected Bay County schools starting this fall.

Members of PNSY's Outreach Team facilitated a Sea Perch workshop at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) summer tech camp July 26-29.

During the workshop, the 14 student participants built seven Sea Perch remotely operated vehicles (ROV) to navigate through underwater obstacles and complete challenges in the oceanography pools at UNH.

"We had a very enthusiastic group of students," said Rick Cecchetti, PNSY engineering recruiter. "We challenged students to navigate a floating hoop obstacle course, recover items from the pool floor and 'cap' a gushing well-the students now have a better appreciation for the difficulty of operating a ROV."

"Future efforts will include projects with local middle and high schools," said Tina Ouellette, outreach team co-lead. "Sea Perch is a great tool to show students just how challenging and exciting STEM can be."

NSWC Panama City and PNSY are Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) field activities. They participate and fund programs that encourage students of all ages to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. NAVSEA develops, delivers and maintains ships and systems on time, on cost for the U.S. Navy.