By:  Matt Fisher and Parth Parekh 

For the past year and a half, the Underwater Robotics Team (UWRT) at Ohio State has been working hard making an affordable  STEM program to reach underprivileged schools in the Columbus area. UWRT is celebrating the successful conclusion of our first run (pilot) of this program.

Figure 1: Students building the robot with the help of the UWRT Mechanical Lead

The STEMBot program is designed to serve a classroom of 25 children for $2500 worth of cost currently sponsored by UWRT. The program is offered at no cost to the local schools. Sponsors are encouraged to donate in terms of classrooms to help quantize the amount of children helped.

Figure 2: Students attended STEMBot workshop in five weeks to learn how to build and operate Underwater Robots

This year’s program was piloted at Rosemore middle school. The team was able to make a great experience for Ms. Cole’s class of 6th-8th graders. Each child was able to design, build, and drive their own Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV).  This ROV has 4 thrusters and is controlled via a raspberry pi microcontroller. The students were able to drive their ROVs with a connected PS3 controller. At the end of the program, the students competed in an underwater obstacle course to see who could drive through the fastest.

Figure 3: Students testing their Underwater Robots before computing in the obstacle course.

The UWRT team is thankful for the members who helped puting this workshop together with limited time during the pandemic as well as the team members who volunteered their time as teachers on Monday afternoons.

UWRT would like to thank the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Ohio State University for graciously offering a lab space at the Dreese Labs. It has been a huge advantage to utilize the space at the ECE department as the base of operations for the team. We would also like to thank Hollie Hinton, the director of the Office of Corporate Relations for her continuous support. Another thank you to the Ohio State University Outreach and Engagement grant and ExxonMobil Corp for their generous funding. Lastly, we would like to thank Ms. Cole for helping us set up our pilot with Rosemore Middle School. None of this would be possible without all the people who help support the team.