Page 25: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2011)

www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 25

On May 24-25, 2011, the first- ever National SeaPerch Challenge, hosted by ONR, SNAME, ASNE and Drexel, and sponsored this year by the Naval Engineering Education

Consortium (NEEC), will be held on the campus of Drexel University where 50 middle and high school student teams from school districts and after school clubs across the country will convene to match skills with their SeaPerch underwater robots in a series of challenging underwater competitions. The

SeaPerch program was designed for students to learn some of the princi- ples of science and engineering by assembling, testing, operating and competing with their own remotely operated ROV’s. Because of ONR’s commitment, the SeaPerch

Program, which introduces middle and high school students to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through under- water robotics, has grown exponen- tially, reaching over 26,000 students in four years. With more than 2000 trained teachers and mentors partic- ipating as well, students are learning through hands-on activities and by following an established curriculum

Set for Philadelphia

National SeaPerch Challenge

Ensigns Natalya Aoki and Patrick Cooper assemble a SeaPerch underwater vehicle at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Judges Needed

Should you be interested in par- ticipating as a judge on May 24, please visit the www.seaperch.org website, and for assistance in reg- istering to be a judge, or for any questions about the event, please contact Phil Kimball at pkim- [email protected] or call 201- 310-2607.