Explore how engineers design and build our magical modern world. We will learn about the process of Engineering Design with a hands-on, project-based approach . . . first in a series of small, fun engineering challenges, and then by employing what we've learned to design and build actual remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). An underwater Quidditch match will test just how well the ROV's perform. If time and weather permit, we will mount underwater video camera's to the ROV's and go out to explore a nearby lake bottom. You will learn and do all sorts of practical things from basic electronics, to the physics of buoyancy, to mechanical design. You will also find out how to focus your creativity, knowledge, and reason into decisions that matter. But what's more, you will start using lots of things you already know, to do things you never thought you could.

About the Instructors

Vincent Weibel is a member of the UAF MAST team that went to Norway in 2007 for an international competitition in underwater ROV. Vincent was an instructor for the ASRA ROV module in 2007 and 2008.

Peter Moriarty is an alumnus of ASRA. Peter has helped his father Ed teach the ROV class at MIT and ASRA for several years. He is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University.

Ed Moriarty is an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Edgerton Center, and the  creator and former lead instructor of the ASRA Engineering Design ROV module. Ed will be leading the "Extreme Photography" module this year, and acting as a consultant for the ROV module. For more about Ed, see the "Extreme Photography" module.