Article

As part of a class project I wrote an article to go along with my blog. So here is my nearly final draft of what I wrote. Sorry if it's not very legible, taking a screen shot was the only way for me to get it online for you all. 

Blogging update

Hi readers,

Just want to give a little insight into my blogging experience since this is my first blog. I am currently in a seminar class in which we discuss how make a blog effective. We also talk about how online text is changing the way we read and write since the audience is very different from the one we address in physical published works.

Even after my class ends in a couple weeks I plan to maintain this blog at least throughout the June ROV competition, but hopefully as long as I am involved with ROVs. Most of what I've written about is my background story, but Spring quarter is when all the ROV excitement takes place, so I should have plenty to tell you.

I have really enjoyed being able to share my experiences with you and I am so very grateful for your support. I know that when I first started writing this blog you may have struggled to stay interested, but I hope that as I continue to write posts I will develop my skills as a blogger and can help you become more engaged in my story.  I also apologize for not always posting very frequently, my life with pre-med classes, work, and an internship doesn't leave me with much time or energy to write captivating posts  (or any posts) more than once a week.

In relation to that, if there are any specific topics you'd like to see me blog about please let me know. I'm always open to new post ideas and ways to add diversity to my blog. I'd love to know what you'd like to hear about.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you!

10 Photos from ROVs

Here are 10 neat photos taken with ROVs. These are images we wouldn't have if it weren't for the great advances in technology that allow us to explore the depths of the sea...

Titanic

http://www.gizmag.com/titanic-expedition-yields-best-images-yet-thanks-to-3d-imaging/16259/picture/121102/ 

Shrimp

http://www.engineerlive.com/Oil-and-Gas-Engineer/Exploration_Drilling/ROV_undertakes_large_scale_photographic_surveys/21744/

Barreleye Fish 

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/deepwater-barreleye-fish-sports-clear-canopy-1

Coral Reef:

http://oceana.org/en/news-media/publications/oceana-magazine/fall-2011/features/exploring-the-pacific

Giant Squid: 

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/giant-squid-caught-live-screen 

Titanic (again)

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/images/titanic-bow06-2004.jpg 

Sea Turtle:

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/green-sea-turtle

Nautilus:

http://blog.conservation.org/2011/03/indonesia-expedition-marine-life-abounds-raja-ampat/

Jelly Fish: 

http://www.oceaneering.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/dssi-2007-celebes-sea.jpg

Seahorse: 

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/longspine-seahorse

Which one is your favorite? 

ROV Competition Videos

Just to give you a visual for what the ROV Competition is like I found a coupld YouTube videos for you to check out

This first one is from last years competition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEZc6gcGe7A&list=UUOVz75VtSRVup4pnjOexkVA&index=1

And this one is from 2007 when I was at the international competition. You can see my team's name "P.T. Crews H.E.R." at time 2:00! And you can see us in a crowd at the beginning, but I don't expect you to recognize me...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeFctnv5vVIvVI

Enjoy!

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Guess what today is? Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!

The field of engineering consists predominately of men. Our society it slated against women being involved in science and technology. Today is a day to recognize this imbalance and to encourage girls and young women to be more involved in science and engineering.

One of my friends, who is going into engineering, posted this on her facebook page today and I thought it wouls be a great thing to share with you

http://vitaminw.co/society/women-engineering-hall-fame 

If you'd like another resource to look at or a place of support for women in science here is a link to the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) website: http://www.awis.org/ I am involved in their university club on Western Washington University's campus and it has been a great resource for me.

Have a great day encouraging the girls and women in your life!

Year One

When I decided to start the club here at Western Washington University I went to the Associated Students (AS) and asked how to go about making our club official. There were three main steps: find five members, write a club constitution, and go to a AS council meeting where they ask about the purpose of your club and make it official. Those steps weren't too hard to complete. My brother, Erik, was interested in joining and so was his roommate and one of my friends. The fifth (and sixth) members found out about the club through an announcement I made in my chemistry class.

I thought it was great that we had a variety of majors in our club: Kinesiology, Geology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Plastics Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. The downside of our very diverse club was discovered very quickly. We didn't have enough experienced engineers to solve our electronic dilemmas. The method of circuit building I had used for many years wasn't compatible with the power requirements of the university level competition and we didn't know how to adjust our design to make it work

This is when things started falling apart. Before Spring Break our budget authority was asked to place a purchase for the necessary parts. But without anyone's knowledge, except for our budget authority's, the items were placed on back order and would not arrive on time. And this person went AWAL a couple weeks before the qualifier, so we had no way to get the info we needed so change the order or place a new one. And time was of the essensce

We were at a total loss and I spent 15min every afternoon in my chem professors office discussing our options. The day before the competition we buckled down and made a make shift system with LED lights to in our circuit in an attempt to lower the voltage across the motors (something the expensive, and missing parts, were supposed to do). By midnight, we had motors and cameras held to our frame with zip-ties. Our ROV looked like something you'd find in the junk yard. But it was built. We named it Njörðr [nyawrd] which is a Norse god associated with the sea.

All we had to do before leaving for the competition in 6.5hrs was test it. We had never been able to find a power supply that would give us 48V and 40amps. So...we did what any dumb desperate college students would do. We used 4 car batteries, two of which were still in cars. It was a dark parking lot, it was raining, and, well, there were some sparks, some screams, and lots of racing hearts. And the result? When I held the controller in my hands and flipped the switch to move the motors the lights turned on, but the motors didn't turn. 

It was very disappointing. The hours and hours we'd spent over the last two quarters finding dedicated members, raising money, and building the ROV, were gone. And we had nothing but a square PVC frame with yellow and green lights to show for it. But we had fun and decided that things could only go up from there. And they have!

Monday Memory: Starting ROV club at WWU

Throughout my next three years of high school I focused on school and sports. I didn't really care about ROVs anymore. I was enjoying being in public school (I was taught at home from 1st through 10th grade) and the new friends I made there. I liked being one of the top girls on cross country team, the only triple jumper in track and running the 4x400m relay and competing at State. I preferred being the cross country and track team captain over a robots team captain. Then when I started school at Western Washington University I was offered a seat on the Women's Rowing Team (which for those of you who haven't heard of them, they won nationals 7 years in a row). I spent about over 25hrs a week at rowing practices. 

My sophomore year I decided I didn't have time to row anymore. Waking up at 4:10am every morning meant having to go to bed at 8:00pm if I wanted to be half awake during my classes. Constant exhaustion (and no break on Saturday), cold and rainy weather, blistered hands, and a lack of social life didn't quite out weight my love of rowing under the stars, watching the sun rise, making amazing friends, and being a varsity athlete on the #1 DII rowing team in the nation. Sometimes I wish I still rowed, but then I think about all of the things I get to do now, that I couldn't have done otherwise.

My favorite class I've taken so far at WWU was General Chemistry. Why? My professor. He was new to the university setting, but that made it even better. He had taught middle/high school student before so the analogies to tricycles and s'mores made chemistry easy to grasp. He was also the kind of professor that was able to get the class to actually WANT to ask/answer questions in class. By the end of the second week of class he knew the names of all 200 students. He was always blowing things up in class. By the end of the first quarter I was considering changing my major to Chemistry. 

Right before Christmas break my professor started out the class time telling us about research opportunities on campus and that if we want to go to grad school we need to do something to make ourselves stand out. He ended his pep talk with: "If any of you want to build robots, come talk to me". That was it! That was the moment when I knew I wanted to get back into building ROVs again. I thought about the time commitment over break and when I got back in January I went to his office and talked over my idea to start a ROV club on campus. He agreed to be our clubs mentor and helped me get the resources I needed. (He is also the one that convinced me I was capable of pursuing medical school and shouldn't hold myself back, but shoot for the starts.)

The first year as a club was a rough one. We (all 5 of us) started late and the only money we had was the $50 that my professor gave us to get started. 

More to come....

Thursday's "Monday Memory"

I know it's not Monday, but it feels like a Monday. Does that count?

In my last post I told you that my team won the regional competition, qualifying us for the international competition in St, John, Newfoundland, Labrador, Canada. Did you know that Newfoundland is actually south of Bellingham, WA, USA? I am about 1 degree longitude north of Newfoundland.

View of the harbour

About one week before the International Competition, we packed our ROV in a wooden crate and shipped it off to Newfoundland. Thankfully it arrived safely, but many other teams were not as lucky. On the way home, however, our ROV arrived as a crumpled cardboard box filled with tangled wires and twisted and broken pvc piping.

There were teams from 8 countries around the world including China, Scotland, Egypt, and Japan. It was overwhelming and exciting to go to the welcoming speech with the top 25 teams from around the world, and I was only 16 years old. Being a girl (AND the team captain) made it even more intimidating since engineering is such a male-dominated field. All of the teams were very friendly. A team from Hong Kong insisted on getting their picture taken with us several times, probably because everyone in my family is really (I was the shortest on there at 5' 11"). We also became really close to the team from Scotland. They begged to take my brothers out for drinks at the bars, but my dad figured that may not be a good idea...

Welcome session

Team from Scotland

Our accommodations were at Memorial University  and the competition was at their Fisheries and Marine Institute. There were three water tanks for us to do our missions in. One was about twice the size of a football field and had a layer of ice on top about 2 inches thick (with a single whole for us to put our ROV through. The second water tank was about 20ft deep and had a current running through it, and the third tank was also about twice the length of a football field and had waves with peaks about 6 inches high. The two longer tanks were designed for driving ships through to test their ability to withstand ice and waves.

Ice tank

Wave tank

Tank with current

The regional competition did not have ice, waves, or current, so this time the missions were a much bigger challenge. We did not score very well on the missions, but we did pretty well with our technical evaluation/presentation. At the final ceremony we were (much to our surprise) granted an award! The "Biggest Bang for the Buck" award since our ROV was cheaply built and still worked pretty well.

Our team (on the right) with a group from Hong Kong

Presentation

Display board

Luckily we had plenty of time to explore the small town of St. John. We hiked up to a old war look out, walked the streets, and visited small shops. We weren't as lucky as some, however, because when we went up the hill to look out over the water it was too foggy for us to see the iceberg out in the bay.

Fort Amherst

Entrance to the harbour

A view of the town from the hilltop

Anglican Cathedral of St John the Baptist

This trip was exhausting, but also very motivating and encouraging. As soon as I got home, I knew I wanted to be able to go to another MATE ROV Competition. But then life happened. high school happened. Being a teenage girl happened. I wanted to run track and not have to miss districts for a robot competition, so for the rest of high school, I choose sports over ROVs. I don't regret that decision, but as soon as I decided not to continue my University athletics after my Freshman year, I knew it was time to get back into ROVs....

Monday Memory: High School Years

I grew up on what felt like a farm. At one point we had 5 dogs, 2 cats, 3 hedgehogs, 2 sugar gliders, 18 rabbits, 3 llamas, 4 sheep, 1 horse, 2 hamsters, 1 fish, and 1 hermit crab. All of these animals were pets, not food. I was VERY active in 4-H for 2nd grade until I graduated from high school. I raised and showed rabbits, dogs, and llamas. As you may be aware 4-H consists of more than just animals, I also did sewing, cooking, Know Your Government, and Mechanical Science 4-H.

You know those people who, whenever they see a need, they jump right in and fill it? That's my dad. We owned dogs, but there was no dog 4-H leader, so my dad bought some books, did lots of research and became the dog 4-H leader. The Mechanical Science leader retired, and since my brothers had been really active in that group, my dad decided he'd lead that group too. This is where ROVs come in. Instead of the usual woodworking, rocket building, or car maintenance type of club, my dad took the idea of ROV building from the museum my brothers and I had volunteered at and made that the focus of the club. During his research he stumbled upon a ROV competition. This, he figured, would give the 4-H club something to work toward. A tangible goal and a way to show off their final product.

Side tracking for a minute...my oldest brother, David, at about this same time, was working with a small group of students and a highly skilled mentor, on building an ROV for use at Battelle. This got my dad, and my whole family even more interested in ROVs.

http://www.ptleader.com/print.asp?ArticleID=12293&SectionID=10&SubSectionID=10 

Ok, back to my story. My dad, brothers, and a couple family friends (as a 4-H team) built a ROV when I was in 8th grade and entered in the MATE ROV Competition. I have always really like building things. One of my favorite toys from my childhood is Legos. I would still sit around building thing out of Legos if I had any in my apartment. When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to join the team. We did fairly well our first year, considering our vehicle was made out of left over parts from the ROVs we built at the Naval Undersea Museum.

My sophomore year, we were no longer affiliated with 4-H, but had a private team. Our vehicle was still made of scraps, so we named it the P.T. CruiseHER. PT=Port Townsend, HER=Hand-me-downs, Extras, and Recyclables, so together it should like the car PT Cruiser. Get it? haha. With this ROV that looked like, honestly, a pile of trash and our bubbly team spirit, we won the  regional competition! Not because our ROV did everything it needed to, but because it did a tad bit more than the ROVs of other teams. And we had a great presentation, too. Winning this competition as a high school team meant we qualified for the international competition in Newfoundland, Labrador, Canada. 

There is a long story about the international competition and how that ties in to today, so come back next week for more of the story!

2013 Competition Plans

I've spent some time giving you a look at my past, so let's take a break from that and look at what is happening right now. My club is in the design/prototype phase of building this year's ROV. You'll hear all about last years project a little further down the road and why we can't/don't want to reuse it. There are so many things I want to explain right now, so this post will jump around a bit.

1) The theme of the competition this year is Ocean Observing Systems, which is exactly what it sounds like: collecting data to observe the oceanic waters and their activity. Here are the tasks that we have to complete at the competition:


Task #1:  Complete a primary node and install a secondary node on the seafloor.
Task #2:  Design, construct, and install a transmissometer to measure turbidity over time.
Task #3:  Replace an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) on a mid-water column mooring
platform.
Task #4:  Remove biofouling from structures and instruments within the observatory.

If you think that sounds like a foreign language, don't worry, I was totally lost at first too. I'll go into detail about the missions soon. If you understand all of those tasks then that's fantastic!

2) Here is a picture of the ROV we are building:

3) An explanation of the competition: The competition is set up so that MATE (Marine Advance Technology Education Center) represents a corporation that is seeking a company (the school teams) to design and build a ROV to help them complete a task. Each team is presents themselves as a company with a CEO, Lead Engineer, Financial Officer, etc. They build a ROV that can complete the tasks and compete for the "contract", the grand prize at the competition. The competition is open to any high school or undergraduate students world wide.

The first part of the competition is to complete the missions are best as possible, but typically only a couple teams are able to do everything in the allotted 15min. The second part of the competition is the evaluation of our team as a whole. We write a technical report outlining each aspect of the ROV and why we designed it the way we did. Each team also gives a presentation to a panel of judges and makes a display board with information about their company.

That's all I'll bombard you with for now. Check back tomorrow, for another Monday Memory!

First Monday Memory

Time for my first "Monday Memory"...

I will start at the beginning. 6th grade. I have two older brothers: David and Erik. David is 5 years older than me and Erik is 3 years older than me. When I was in 6th grade, they began a summer volunteer program at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, WA. This program was 3 days a week. One day building ROVs, one day curating an exhibit for the museum lobby, and one day of doing science experiments with, and painting the faces of children. I always thought what they did sounded really exciting and couldn't wait to do it when I was old enough. 

The summer after my 8th grade year I joined the summer student guide program. I didn't really like curating an exhibit because that seemed too much like school, and after all, it was my summer vacation. The kids were always fun to play with...well maybe not "always", but that day of the week was certainly entertaining. Learning how to solder, using power tools to drill holes in boxes, and wear super cool safety goggles (while not throwing pvc piping across the room at other students ;) ) was the best part.

We built very simple ROVs from pvc piping, bilge pump motor cartridges with propellers attached, small surveillance cameras waterproofed with epoxy, and a few double-pull-double-throw switches for our controls. They were simple, but fun and easy to control in the water. At the end of the summer we took our ROVs to a swimming pool on the Navy base and  tested them out. Our instructors threw some things on the bottom of the pool for us to have our ROVs pick up with the coat hangers attached to the front of their frames.

I spent 3 summers volunteering at the Naval Undersea Museum, and so did my brothers. Who would think that a small fraction of an 8 week middle school summer volunteer program would have a big impact on what you do in college? Now I'm sure you're wondering how that led me to an international ROV competition. I'm getting to it, so stay tuned.

What is this blog about?

Maybe you have heard of ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) before and are curious what my experiences are with them, or maybe you are seeing "robots under the sea" and your have a puzzled look on your face that says "why in the world would you put robots in the water??' That sounds bizarre but kind of neat." Either way, you are welcome to read this blog. I am going to be outlining my past experience building this "underwater robots" (in quotations because they aren't technically 'robots') and my present experiences as I lead a university team that is building a ROV for the 2013 Annual International MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) ROV Competition.

To give you a quick idea of what an ROV is, picture a metal or plastic frame with a couple of cameras, and a handful of propellers swimming through the water. Then imagine a cable that runs to the surface from the ROV so the pilot can maneuver the vehicle with just a handheld controller and a television monitor. ROVs can be anywhere from the size of a shoe box to the size of a small house. For the purpose of this competition we keep ours closer to the shoe box size. 

Now you may be wondering, "What are these things used for?" Ever wondered how we received footage of the inside of the Titanic, how we get samples off the ocean floor, retrieve test torpedoes, or repair broken oil wells? ROVs. The conditions under water are often too dangerous for human divers, so what better way to get the work done than with a ROV. Each year the MATE Competition centers around a different theme. This year the theme is Ocean Observing Systems. Learn about the competition tasks here.