Ocean Engineering Experience 2011

For immediate release: July 6, 2011Contact: Nancy Adams, nadamsx@mit.edu, 617 253-9305OCEAN ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE July 9 ¤ July 16stOEX Public Events, Friday, July 15:Project Demonstration: 1 PM – 3 PM, MIT Sailing PavilionStudent Presentations: 5 PM, MIT MuseumCambridge, MA, May 20 ¤ The MIT Ocean Engineering Experience (OEX), a week-long intensive summer academic program in its second year, begins, July 9 with 17 high school students from across the US and around the world. A final demonstration event will take place Friday, July 15 at 1 PM at MIT¡s Sailing Pavilion. At 5 PM, also on July 15, the participants will give presentations about their work at the MIT Museum. OEX was founded by the MIT Sea Grant College Program and the MIT Center for Ocean Engineering.About OEXOEX is a hands-on residential camp at MIT that introduces high school students to the fields of marine science and ocean engineering as applied to marine vehicles and marine structures. Students from around the world are eligible to apply and selected to participate on the basis of their enthusiasm for engineering, academic achievements and personal goals. Participants engage in a real-world scientific problem that takes teamwork, science and engineering to solve. The program piloted in 2010 with eight students and was a great success. Brooke Winslow, a 2010 OEX participant remembers, We had a jam-packed schedule the entire time, which made it tons of fun,Œ She adds, The experience was exhilarating and the mentors there taught us everything we needed, but the team had complete creative control.Œ Following her OEX experience, Brooke applied, and was admitted to, MIT. She¡ll join the class of 2015 in the fall.Topics covered during the week include forces and moments, basic electric circuits, DC motors, engineering design, and basic engineering measurements and analysis. Instruction, utilizing state-of-the-art laboratories of the Center for Ocean Engineering at MIT, is provided by MIT research staff and faculty, as well as MIT student mentors, with experience in robotics, ocean engineering, mechanical engineering and other related expertise. The 2011 OEX project will be the construction of a radio-controlled boat. The boat will house a solar panel and wind turbine fabricated by the students. OEX participants will use the boat to explore solar and wind alternative energy and how it varies throughout the Charles River. There will also be indicator towers on the boat to show how much wind or solar energy is being gained at a given time.About MIT Sea GrantThe mission of the MIT Sea Grant College Program is to employ innovative research, education and outreach strategies to responsibly use and sustain the vital marine resources of Massachusetts. The issues we address manifest locally but many are global in nature. Compelling challenges demand our attention as a solo entity and in partnership with other groups living and working on the coasts and at sea. MIT Sea Grant brings the substantial intellectual abilities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and our sister universities to bear on ocean-related challenges requiring an extraordinary technical contribution. In meeting these challenges, we expand human understanding of the ocean and establish the infrastructure to sustain the initiatives and talent pool needed to address complex issues of critical and fragile marine resources.###