Parker’s ROV Team Makes a Splash at Morning Ex

The ROV team took over the Heller Auditorium at Monday’s Morning Ex to give the community a fresh dip into Parker’s Remotely Operated Vehicle team, focusing on underwater robotics.

The team introduced themselves, starting with the ROV Leadership team of senior Gabby Druger, CEO; junior Beckett Nikitas, COO; junior Simone Shonuga, head of marketing: junior Emma Webster, secretary; junior Caitlyn Howe, head of organization; senior Brian Campoverde, head of mechanical engineering; and senior Suhani Aggarwal and junior Frances Gomez-Barrientos, co-heads of software. Next cam the rest of the team: sophomores Delilah Davis, Felix Farkas, Solena Ornelas Pagnucci, Charlotte Paul, Paige Randell and. Naia Trukenbrod and senior Matthew Borden.

The leadership team and other team members explained what the MATE ROV Competition entails, recapping the 2022–23 competition year, the various challenges the students faced, how they overcame those issues and their plans for the new season. For example, part of MATE is trying to create robotic tools that can help provide solutions to real-world problems in the marine environment; the competition consists of three parts: Pool Demo, Technical Presentation and Poster and Marketing. The team talked about challenges they had building—with the floats, with the electrics, with the onboard cameras, to name a few—as well as problems that arose during the competition and what they plan to change for the future.

Looking toward the horizon for this team, Advisor Elizabeth Druger shared, “The team is looking to ‘up their game’ in terms of ROV design. They are thrilled to get the year underway and are looking for mentors—specifically, folks who have backgrounds in electrical engineering and/or PCB board design.”

Join Parker in congratulating the team on a recent successful season, one that saw them get second place in the Midwest Regional MATE ROV Competition!

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