Next week, 14 students and two teachers from Pensacola Catholic High School will travel to Long Beach, California, to match their remotely operated vehicle (ROV) – designed to probe the ocean below the arctic ice – against other regional winners from around the world.
The competition is conducted by MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education), whose mission is to use the development of the ROV to teach students both STEM skills and help develop an entrepreneurial mindset so that they develop the technology to form companies and create jobs around it.
Crubotics – a portmanteau of robotics and the CHS Crusader mascot – has competed in the Northern Gulf Coast regional competition for the past five years, except for a break from COVID. In April, the team bested the field and earned the right to travel to California for the world challenge.
“Of course, I was proud of the victory,” said CHS Science Teacher Dana Lupton, team mentor. “But I was even more impressed by how they handled adversity. When things started to go wrong, they pulled together as a team, quickly and calmly developing a solution. It was incredible to watch.”
From California, the team won’t be testing the ROV in actual arctic conditions, but the challenges are formidable even in the controlled conditions of a swimming pool. For example, the ROV must enter the water through a hole in the ice, navigate to the ocean floor, and monitor and report back conditions in real-time. As an added layer of difficulty, the ROV’s software must incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) that can identify schools of fish and estimate their numbers, locate and retrieve any dead fish, and stitch together a composite picture of the surroundings.
“This is a very complex blend of hardware and software that would challenge adults trained in these disciplines,” Lupton said. “To see a group of young people step in and take on the roles that emerged based on needs is a real inspiration.”
The trip to California is partly being underwritten by a sponsorship from Raxis, an Atlanta-based penetration testing firm with strong ties to Pensacola and the CyberCoast.
“It was intense curiosity about how things work that led me to a career in pen testing and ultimately to create a company of like-minded professionals,” said Raxis CEO Mark Puckett. “I’m absolutely thrilled to see high-school students taking on challenges like this because the payoff for them and for our planet will be immeasurable.”