Seattle Academy Underwater Robotics Team Competes in World Championships

Seattle Academy's Upper School Underwater Robotics Team - Blueshift Robotics - made it to the World Championships with their very own designed and manufactured FLOAT-E (a ROV, remote operated vehicle). "The robot is completely student-designed and built from the ground up," explains Meghan Jimenez, SAAS Robotics Director. FLOAT-E is capable of removing oceanic debris, relocating invasive species, propagating coral, and identifying and collecting samples to ensure environmental health. 

The 2021 Mate ROV Competition challenged students to "tackle problems that impact the entire world: plastics clogging our rivers, lakes, waterways, and ocean from the surface to the bottom of the Mariana Trench; climate change raising ocean temperatures, affecting the health of coral reefs; and contaminants in our waterways. You can find these scenarios from Pennsylvania to Portugal, Florida to Australia, the Western Pacific to the Mid-Atlantic, and Indianapolis to Indonesia." 

"This team has been amazing. They spent hours standing outside in the rain at a pool to test their robot to try to get a good enough test run to qualify for the championship and now they are working into their summer to make their robot the best it can be," says Meghan. Stay tuned as the team makes their World Championship submission on July 15th. You got this Blueshift!