The SMAST acoustic-optic test tank today welcomed the New Bedford Police Underwater Recovery Unit for the first of an anticipated series of training sessions.
“It is critical to train members of this unit in many different situations and environments,” said Sergeant Jason Gomes, CO of the Port Security Unit and a supervisor on the Underwater Recovery Unit. Continue reading
The 2013 National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) champions visited SMAST this week as part of a tour of New England marine science programs. The Arcadia (CA) High School team outlasted some 300 other high school teams and edged out second-place finisher Lexington (MA) High School by a single point to capture the honor. The competition consists of buzzer-style, multiple choice questions and longer, critical-thinking-based team challenge questions on ocean-related topics.
The students toured SMAST facilities and were treated to presentations on ocean gliders and cod-tagging research before departing for a visit to the Whaling Museum and a boat tour of New Bedford Harbor. The NOSB is an ocean science education program of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, based in Washington, D.C.
(Photo, L to R: team members Kevin Kha, Kathy Lee, Kevin Wang, Christopher Chen, and NOSB representative Melissa Bradeur. Not shown: team member Natasha George and coach Karen Rapacan.)
Two of three top spots went to New Bedford teams at the New England Regional MATE ROV—remotely operated vehicle—competition in Buzzards Bay this weekend. Plying the waters of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy pool, twenty-two teams “flew” underwater vehicles of their own design and construction, in a race against the clock to execute several realistic missions.
First and second places went to the Greater New Bedford Vocational-Technical High School “Mariner Engineering” team and the New Bedford High School “Whalers,” respectively. Third place was captured by Blue Hills Regional Technical School of Canton, MA. The Voc-Tech team continues on to the international competition in Seattle in June.
The event was organized by SMAST ocean engineer Chris Jakubiak, the New England Regional Coordinator for Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE).
Twenty-three student teams from high schools and middle schools throughout New England will participate in the regional MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) ROV competition at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Saturday, April 20, from 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM. The teams have designed and built remotely operated underwater vehicles and will pilot them through simulated scientific missions.
The winning team in the high school division will travel to Seattle to compete in the international finals in June. SMAST engineer Chris Jakubiak, the MATE New England Regional Coordinator, organized the event. The public is invited.
Two New Bedford secondary schools took first in six of seven categories at this year’s MATE New England Regional ROV Competition. Eleven teams designed and built remotely controlled vehicles, or ROVs, and brought them to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on April 28th to be tested on their performance of a complex underwater mission. To their first-place finish overall, the New Bedford High School team added firsts in mission score and engineering evaluation, and will represent New England at the international finals in Orlando in June. Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School had best technical report and poster display, and placed third overall. Blue Hills Regional Technical High School of Canton finished in second. SMAST engineer Chris Jakubiak, chair of the New England Chapter of the Marine Technology Society, organizes the competition.
The March 21 edition of MIT News reports on “Weather in a Tank,” the lab demonstration that visualizes fluid dynamics in a rotating domain, like the planet Earth. Six universities, including UMass Dartmouth, proved the educational value of the apparatus in a three-year in-class trial. The current Journal of Geoscience Education reports that students in classes where the tank and accompanying curriculum were used “… consistently made greater gains at the posttest than the comparison groups, especially those students in introductory level courses and lab courses.” In an unanticipated spinoff, Prof. Amit Tandon (Physics/SMAST) and his students used the Weather in a Tank apparatus to simulate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by manipulating the prevailing winds (electric fans).
The “SMAST Smashers” bowling team led the field at Sunday’s Fish Bowl 2011, raising a tournament-best $580.00 for education programs at the Ocean Explorium at New Bedford Seaport. Graduate students Marco Pedulli (team captain) and Kaz Hayashi, Administrative Assistant Gail Lyonnais, and Associate Dean Prof. Avijit Gangopadhyay bowled their way to glory and support of marine public education. Each bowler had to recruit sponsors to donate money for their efforts; fortunately for the SMAST team, those donations were not contingent on championship-level scores.
SMAST scientist Dan MacDonald was vacationing on the shores of Lake Sunapee in western New Hampshire, where he grew up, when he read that the Lake Sunapee Protective Association (LSPA) was launching a study of the algal blooms that occasionally plague parts of the lake. Dan noted that the physical circulation of the lake–which can play a major role in the location and size of blooms–was not included in the study, and he just happened to have the necessary instruments back at the lab. The upshot: on a balmy day in late June, Dan and SMAST engineer Chris Jakubiak boarded a pontoon boat along with LSPA members and divers, and deployed a current profiler on one of the shallow sills that separate Lake Sunapee’s deep basins. The researchers plan to collect the profiler and accompanying temperature chains in late September for a first glimpse of the lake’s summer circulation regime.
As the June offering in the “Dock-U-Mentaries” film series, researchers from the Department of Fisheries Oceanography will present All Hands on Deck: Cooperation between Industry and Science for Sustainable Fisheries this Friday, June 17th, at 7:00 PM at the Corson Maritime Learning Center in downtown New Bedford. Dave Martins, Owen Nichols, Cate O’Keefe and Emily Keiley will recount their respective stories of working with the fishing industry to advance science. The Dock-U-Mentaries series, a collaboration of the Working Waterfront Festival Committee and the National Park Service, highlights a different topic relevant to New Bedford’s working waterfront each month.
Seventeen teams of high-school engineers will gather at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Saturday for the MATE New England regional ROV competition sponsored by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center. Each team has designed and built a remotely controlled underwater vehicle that will be tested on its performance of a complex mission that includes capping a wellhead that is leaking oil from the “sea floor.” SMAST engineer Chris Jakubiak, as chair of the local chapter of the Marine Technology Society, organizes the event, and SMAST Dean John Farrington helps underwrite a UMass Dartmouth team that will compete in the international event at NASA in Houston. Winners of Saturday’s competition will also go on to Houston to compete at the high-school level.