Middle school, high school and community college students from 3 states and 43 area schools will battle it out in an underwater robotics competition May 10, 2008 in the Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge. The underwater robot combat will be hosted by Drexel University’s College of Engineering at the Daskalakis Athletic Center at 33rd & Market from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. 43 teams will contend in the U.S. Navy funded competition to win recognition for design excellence, presentation, and teamwork while fulfilling the U.S. Navy’s goal of increasing interest in robotics, science, mathematics, engineering and technology.

The MIT founded Sea Perch program is part of the Office of Naval Research's initiative, “Recruiting the Next Generation of Naval Architects.” The program teaches students how to build an underwater robot (called a Sea Perch), a propulsion system, a controller and how to investigate weight and buoyancy in 14 weeks through professional mentors trained by the U.S. Navy. More than 600 students will compete to see who will win first place for their Remote Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROV) in the following categories: (1) Vehicle performance (2) Team presentation (3) Teamwork summaries and (4) Spirit & sportsmanship. Panels of external judges from industry, government agencies and higher education will evaluate the competition. Each category will have its own separate panel of judges. In addition, each team will be given a score for each event and each category will have three awards.

The Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge sponsors and volunteers come from some of the most highly regarded organizations in the area, including Drexel University, the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE), the School District of Philadelphia and Sea Grant. Sponsors provide resources including time and talent from professional mentors, services, equipment, financial contributions, and volunteers. For more information on Sea Perch, please visit http://www.coe.drexel.edu/seaperch/index.php.

ABOUT The Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge
MIT founded the Sea Perch Challenge program to inspire pre-college students to explore the wonders of underwater robotics. This program is funded by the Office of Naval Research as part of its National Naval Responsibility Initiative. The initiative focuses on bringing academia, government and industry to work together to ensure that the talent needed to design the Navy's next generation of ships and submarines will be there when needed. For more information on Sea Perch, please visit http://www.coe.drexel.edu/seaperch/index.php.