A team from the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific has earned prestigious recognition, receiving the Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Advocate of the Quarter award for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023. This accolade is a testament to their significant contributions to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and outreach, further bolstering the DoD’s mission.
The lauded team consists of about 100 dedicated volunteers, who demonstrated exceptional effort and commitment in organizing NIWC Pacific’s 26th International Student Robotic Submarine (RoboSub) competition. This event, held in August 2023, saw the congregation of 35 teams and 350 students from multiple countries, including the U.S., Canada, India, Singapore, and Bangladesh. Together, they engaged in the collaborative task of crafting robotic submarines capable of addressing challenges parallel to those faced in the field of autonomous underwater vehicles.
Notably, the NIWC Pacific volunteers collaborated with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), offering over 1,000 hours of their time to support student competitors in a range of underwater subject areas such as ocean exploration and mapping, object detection and manipulation, and pipeline identification and tracking.
The return of the RoboSub competition to an in-person format at NIWC Pacific, after a hiatus due to the pandemic, was particularly gratifying. As expressed by Travis Moscicki, project lead of the Unmanned Maritime Vehicle Lab, “It was very satisfying to see RoboSub come back to NIWC Pacific in person and see the talents and enthusiasm of the student engineers.” His co-lead, Stephanie Luna, strategy implementation manager at Corporate Operations, also shared this sentiment, emphasizing the inspiration and hope derived from witnessing the hard work and camaraderie of the participants.
The team’s success stems from a series of impactful initiatives, including coordinating a visit from the Chief of Naval Operations (then Vice Chief of Naval Operations) Adm. Lisa Franchetti, harnessing on-site support from various Naval entities, and making use of NIWC Pacific’s Transducer Evaluation Center (TRANSDEC) pool—a remarkable six-million-gallon facility designed to exclude extraneous noises and allow precise control of conditions.
One innovative element of the program was the establishment of a STEM Ambassador Program, which paired RoboSub teams with early-career engineers from NIWC Pacific. This initiative fostered a mentoring environment where teams could work alongside the engineers to address pressing issues.
Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus, Chief of Naval Research and Naval STEM Executive, applauded the team’s achievement, noting their “passion, hard work, and vision” in crafting a rigorous and inclusive RoboSub event that served as a dynamic introduction to naval challenges.
The DoD STEM Advocate of the Quarter award is one of many distinguished honors presented by the Office of the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Science and Technology within the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. It aims to recognize significant contributions by individuals and teams in research and development, technology transfer, and STEM advocacy.
Relevant articles:
– Valued Volunteers: NIWC Pacific Employees Win DoD STEM Prize for RoboSub Service, Office of Naval Research (.mil)
– Navy, Marines, STEM, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, navalstem.us