Page 58: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2014)

58 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JULY 2014

SEAPERCH

There was a roster of speakers, includ- ing CMDR David Arnold, Director of

Diversity, Navy Recruiting Command, who spoke about the value of a STEM education and this country’s need for scientists and engineers, as well as Dr.

Herbert Eppert from the Naval Research

Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, who applauded the SeaPerch Program and re- inforced the value of a strong education in the sciences.

Throughout the day teams competed in three events including the Poster

Presentation held in the Center’s class- rooms, and two underwater events at the Johnson Natatorium – the Obstacle

Course and the Heist Challenge, on three levels: Middle School, High School and the Open Class. Of the 108 teams in at- tendance on Saturday, 55 were middle school, 43 high school and 10 in the

Open Class.

The Poster Presentations: In the

Poster Presentations the teams described their SeaPerch project to a panel of three judges consisting of engineers and edu- cators. Each poster was scored based on appearance, objectives and summary, professional behavior, design explana- tion, engineering concepts and the team members’ responses to the judges’ ques- tions.

The submerged obstacle course: The course consisted of fi ve, 22-inch diam- eter hoops, oriented in different planes, through which the vehicles had to be maneuvered. Teams were required to navigate through the entire obstacle course, surface, then re-submerge and return through the course again to the end. Scores for this round were based on the shorter time of two runs successfully navigating the course within the 15-min- ute time allotment.

The Heist Challenge: A new under- water event this year, called the Heist

Challenge, consisted of a mesh vault wall spanning the lane from bottom to the surface. Starting two feet below the surface was a vault door, located within a two-ft. square opening in the wall. In order to open the door operators had to manipulate a latch with their ROV and push open the vault door. On the far side of the wall was a series of six boxes to be retrieved, each of a different weight.

Operators had to pick up as many of the boxes as possible within the time allot- ted and deposit them on an 18 x 24-in. lay-down area on the operator’s side of the wall. Scoring was based on the num- ber of boxes retrieved in 15 minutes.

This year 120 judges and volunteers helped to keep the busy day running smoothly.

The event was video-streamed live from poolside via the SeaPerch website so sponsors, supporters and team coach- es could invite their companies and their schools’ principals, superintendents, teachers, and fellow students as well as families back home to watch their teams in action.

Near the end of the day’s events many invited guests and speakers were avail- able to witness fi rst-hand the excitement at poolside prior to the start of the ban- quet and award presentation program.

That evening a total of 1008 were seated for dinner and another 50 spectators were on hand to witness the festivities at the Payne Center, a 50% increase over last year in Indianapolis, IN. Mistress of Ceremonies, Susan Nelson, began the program by making a special presenta- tion of an Award for Distinguished Ser- vice, which was presented to Candida

Desjardins, Program Manager, Educa- tional Outreach, Naval Undersea War- fare Center Division Newport, in recog- nition of her outstanding service to the

SeaPerch Program.

CAPT Robert E. Palisin, II, USN, As- sistant Chief of Naval Research, ONR, congratulated the competitors and spoke about the need for students to follow sci- ence and engineering as a career.

Nelson introduced the person who started it all, Kelly Cooper, Program Of- fi cer, Sea Warfare and Weapons Depart- ment, ONR, who congratulated all of the teams and encouraged them to continue their studies in STEM subjects. The key- note speaker was RADM Brian Brown,

Commander, Naval Meteorological and

Oceanographic Command.

His 2500 engineers are involved in data collection and high performance computer systems that generate predic- tive models important to the Navy’s stra- tegic operations.

Admiral Brown emphasized that com- munication is a critical part of science and expressing one’s ideas is important to scientifi c discovery, research and en- gineering development, and added that he felt at ease knowing that many of the student competitors in the audience to- day would become tomorrow’s scientists and engineers. 2014 National SeaPerch Champions

Gulf Coast Contenders Club

Saucier, MS

First runner-up

Atlantis

Charleston, SC

Second runner-up

Submersibles

Egg Harbor Township, NJ

Team Time or Points

First Place – Obstacle Course

Middle School

Red October 0:41.63

Newburgh, IN

High School

Gulf Coast Contenders Club 0:44.75

Saucier, MS

Open Class 0:43.00

Bloomington North Barbarians

Bloomington, IN

First Place – Heist Challenge

Middle School

Cynthia Heights Acro 4:57.33

Evansville, IN

High School

Gulf Coast Contenders Club 2:53.27

Saucier, MS

Open Class

Team Ageir 3:37.92

Gloucester, VA

First Place - Poster Presentation

Middle School

Neptune’s Nemesis 81

Gambrills, MD

High School

NZ Time Ruku 85

Nelson NZ

Open Class

Outside-the-Box 80

Manassas, VA

First Place – All Events

Middle School

Submersibles 9

Egg Harbor Township, NJ

High School

Gulf Coast Contenders Club 5

Saucier, MS

Open Class

Bloomington North Barbarians 6

Bloomington, IN

Two special awards were also made to student teams this year. The Creativity Award, given to the team that demonstrated multiple unique design elements, was presented to Team Outside-the-Box from Manassas, VA. The Engineering Excellence

Award, demonstrating an innovative technical ap- proach and execution, was presented to Team CPS

TigerBots from Hanover, MD.

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