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Ultimate ROV Challenge Was Amazing!

Advanced Course Team Members & Judges

Advanced Course Team Members & Judges


On May 7, 2015 PAST Innovation Lab along with partners COSI, BOEM and C&C Technologies hosted the Ultimate ROV Challenge, and we could not be more thrilled with the student teams. Nearly 80 high school students and two middle school students came to COSI with the Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) they have worked on all school year. The 19 teams designed, built and tested their ROVs with the goal of plunging them into the deep dive tank at COSI.

We designed opportunities to fly the ROVs based on the experience of the teams: Basic Course and Advanced Course. Our panel of judges evaluated each team’s performance based on specific criteria (see below).

With us for this event were

  1. Marty Klein, known as “The Father of Side Scan Sonar” and a leader in deep sea technology

  2. Robert Church, Senior Marine Archaeologist, C&C Technologies

  3. Daniel Warren, Senior Marine Archaeologist, C&C Technologies

  4. Chris Brandon, Engineer

  5. Tim Carpenter, Mechanical Engineer

  6. Dick Dieffenderfer, Dir. Technology & Engineering Showcase, Ohio Technology & Engineering Educators Assoc.

From BOEM (US Dept of Interior Bureau of Energy Management), Melanie Damour joined us to present awards and inspiration. Melanie is a Marine Archaeologist and Environmental Studies Coordinator for BOEM.

Learn more about our ROV Judges

Congratulations to all teams – as Melanie said, there were no failures, only opportunities to learn and grow.

PAST Innovation Lab is grateful to BOEM, COSI and our judges who helped us bring this event to central Ohio. And without the dedication of the teams’ school engineering advisors, this would not have happened at all.  They are amazing mentors.

Next year we are planning a bigger event with more teams, more action, more fun. If your school would like to know more, please contact us. We want every student in every school to have the opportunity to build robots, fly ROVs and be ready for 21st century careers.

Criteria for Basic Course included:

  1. The ROV must be able to navigate up and down, reverse and forward.

  2. The ROV must have 100 feet/ 30.48 meters of controller cable (eg. Cat 5 cable comes with SeaPerch)

  3. The ROV team must use a COSI tender to deploy and tend the ROV cable.

  4. The ROV team must present a Statement of Invention on May 1, 2015 by 3pm

  5. The ROV team must submit a digital presentation that highlights the design, build and modifications chronicled in the Statement of Invention on May 1, 2015.

  6. The ROV team must present their digital presentation to a professional panel at COSI on May 7, 2015 and be ready to answer followup questions.

Criteria for Advanced Course required:

  1. The ROV must be able to navigate up and down, reverse and forward.

  2. The ROV must have 100 feet/ 30.48 meters of controller cable (eg. Cat 5 cable comes with SeaPerch)

  3. The ROV must employ an underwater camera to inform the team in terms of location

  4. The ROV team must use a COSI tender to deploy and tend the ROV cable.The ROV must have a way of recovering two of three samples (Micro-Biological, Geological, Faunal, and/or Floral)

  5. The ROV must be able to save the specimens and bring them intact to the surface.

  6. The ROV team must fly from a blind location using only monitor and controls to implement the tasks and steer the vehicle.

  7. The ROV team must present a Statement of Invention on May 1, 2015 by 3pm

  8. The ROV team must submit a digital presentation that highlights the design, build and modifications chronicled in the Statement of Invention on May 1, 2015.

  9. The ROV team must present their digital presentation to a professional panel at COSI on May 7, 2015 and be ready to answer followup questions.

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