Page 78: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2012)

78Maritime Reporter & Engineering News TECHNICALEDUCATION National SeaPerch Challenge Set for April Building on the immediate success of the first- ever National SeaPerch Challenge held last year in Philadelphia, this year?s greatly expanded National Challenge will be hosted by the Prince William County Schools on April 12-13, 2012 at the Man- assas Park Community Center in Manassas, Vir- ginia. Nearly 75 teams, consisting of four studentsand one adult leader each, from school districts andafter school club/groups including 4-H, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will assemble for the national event. They will assess how their SeaPerch under- water robots will fare in competition amongtheir peers through aseries of underwater challenges and a ju-ried poster competi-tion where theirdesigns and adapta-tions will be pre-sented. As Susan Nelson, Executive Director of SeaPerch, said, ?We are pleased with the increase in the number of teams from 38 last year to nearly 75teams this year. The growth in the program has been remarkable, and the fact that so many of the local teams are willing to hold regional competi- tions and send their top teams to the National Chal-lenge is a true win.? Including additional student and adult observers, parents, volunteers, judges, VIP?s, speakers and committee members, a total at- tendance of 450 is projected in Manassas Park. The SeaPerch program was designed for students to learn important principles of science and engi-neering by assembling, troubleshooting, testing, op-erating and competing with their own Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The program, now in its sixth year, is sponsored by the Office of Naval Re- search (ONR) and administered by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foun- dation (AUVSIF), with major supportfor the National Chal-lenge from the Naval Engineering Educa-tion Consortium(NEEC). ?The Na-tional Challenge was made possible bothlast year and this be-cause of the grantsprovided by NEEC, and in these difficult funding times, they came through to help defray the majority of the costs as-sociated with the event and we are grateful for this continuing support,? added Nelson. Because of ONR?s commitment to SeaPerch, which introduces K-12 students to STEM (Science, Technology, En- gineering and Mathematics) through underwater ro- botics, the program has grown exponentially, reaching over 40,000 students to date. With over For news and updates about theNational Challenge, visit theSeaPerch website, www.seaperch.org and for questions please contactPhil Kimball, Program Director, at [email protected] MR March 12 # 10 (73-80):MR Template 3/6/2012 9:04 AM Page 78