Program Overview
Join us May 5, 2007 for the 2nd
Annual
Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge
Drexel University
Daskalakis Athletic Center
Event: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Registration: 8:30 am - 9:00 am
Theme
Sea Perch is a naval engineering initiative that has real practical application. Today's naval forces use remotely operated vehicles (ROV's) and other offboard sensors to identify and/or engage threats or to help with salvage, rescue, recovery or repair missions. Often, these missions are accomplished under the cover of darkness, in low visibility underwater environments, or in places where the risk is too high to send manned vehicles or divers. Your mission with Sea Perch is to develop and build a vehicle that can satisfactorily perform these various naval missions. Your vehicle must be designed to be stable as you maneuver to reach your objective. It must be agile and responsive so you can successfully maneuver to capture targeted objects. It must be designed with the proper buoyancy so you can recover payloads or objects and still return to the surface. It must have the ability to perform its mission using remote sensing capability that can feed live video back to the command and control station so critical decisions can be made. And it must be stealthy and fast so you can avoid detection, destruction or capture and complete time sensitive missions. The minimum performance characteristics that the naval forces need have been defined for you. We will be selecting the Sea Perch from various competitors that can best meet our mission objectives. Enhancements that allow your sea perch to exceed our basic requirements are desired as long as you don't exceed the budget provided. We are depending on you to develop this capability to meet ongoing threats and other missions. Through competition against your peers, we believe we will get the best possible product. Good Luck!
Background
MIT Sea Grant's new Sea Perch program introduces pre-college students to the wonders of underwater robotics. Part of the Office of Naval Research's initiative, "Recruiting the Next Generation of Naval Architects," this program teaches students how to build an underwater robot (called a Sea Perch), how to build a propulsion system, how to develop a controller, and how to investigate weight and buoyancy. This endeavor is one of many exciting new projects funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) as part of its National Naval Responsibility Initiative. The initiative focuses on bringing academia, government and industry to work together to ensure that the talent needed to design the Navy's next generation of ships and submarines will be there when needed. To visit the MIT Sea Perch website please visit http://web.mit.edu/seagrant/edu/seaperch/WhySP.html.
So how did it end up in Philadelphia?
The Delaware Valley Section of the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) and the Philadelphia Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) brought the Sea Perch program to Philadelphia and Drexel University. ONR funds the kits that ASNE and NSWC provide for the competition. In the spring of 2005 Drexel hosted a teacher training and through contact with the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of College and Career Awareness Secondary Robotics Initiative the idea for hosting the first ever Sea Perch competition came about. The Secondary Robotics Initiative brought the Delaware Valley Industrial Research Council (DVIRC) onboard as a partner to round out the industrial expertise. The first Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge Sea Search and Rescue was held at Drexel University on Saturday, June 3, 2006.
Eligibility
The Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge is open to middle school and high schools and community colleges in the Philadelphia region. The goal is to increase student interest in robotics, science, mathematics, engineering and technology and to introduce students to naval engineering.