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October 2011 www.sname.org/sname/mt STX U.S. horizontal orientation,? Tressi said. Our design goal was to be small and compact.? Raji Kurbaj, a sophomore who wants to be an electrical engineer, said the team started out working with the FIRST Robotics program, but evolved into SeaPerch because we thought it was very cool.? Kurbaj said the club meets three times a week, but its mem- bers worked overtime on their SeaPerch as the challenge day approached. He said the team spent a lot of time experimenting with dierent gear ratios and testing the gears. We wanted some- thing to be special.? Justin Johnson said the Upper Darby team completed the project in just a few weeks. e best part was learning from and working with the mentors,? he said. Eli Canavati said their advisors were helpful, but the students had to do the work. If we didnt know how to do it, or how it worked, we werent allowed to use it.? e judges told us they were impressed,? said Johnson, who wants to be wants to be an architectural engineering technician or a mechani- cal engineering technician. We were pretty impressed with it, too.? SeaPerch progress is is just the beginning,? said Phil Kimball. is is a chance for stu- dents to meet other students from across the country. ey learn from each other. ey talk to the other teams, and observe how others have solved similar problems or how theyve modied their robots.? I can see that the students, teachers and parents are already gearing up for next year,? Kimball said. eyve learned from their experience, and want to come back and do better next time.? e 2012 SeaPerch National Challenge will be hosted by the Prince William Public Schools at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. Building the SeaPerch is awesome, powerful, and empower- ing, but its just the beginning,? said Toby Ratclie, an engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Carderock, Maryland. e kids see it as a nal product, but they soon realize it can do other things. e cool thing is they learn troubleshooting. But more than that, its the connection between students and engineers as role models.? For those engineers or scientists interested in starting a com- munity SeaPerch program, I would say there couldnt be a more satisfying activity that not only teaches basic mechanical and elec- trical skills through hands-on learning, but allows the student builders to test, balance, operate, and compete against other teams in a clean, fun and wholesome interactive environment,? Kimball said. To know that you might have sparked a lifelong love of learn- ing, and opened the eyes of just one student to a future career as a scientist or engineer, is its own reward. e nal results from the 2011 SeaPerch National Challenge can be found at http://www.seaperch.org/results_2011 MTEdward Lundquist is principal science writer at MCR, LLC. (student perspectives)