Middle school students from the metro New Orleans area spent a week delving into engineering topics and creating projects to demonstrate those concepts as part of the 海角社区robotic eel camp.
鈥淭he goal of the camp was to expose middle school students to various engineering topics including 3D printing, electrical engineering, robot design, robot building, buoyancy and thrust/drag,鈥 海角社区 engineering professor Brandon Taravella said.
The "PrivatEEL STEM" camp, led by 海角社区's School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research on July 12-16.
The students spent the week performing various STEM activities, such as building water bottle rockets and constructing and testing the strength of straw towers, Taravella said. The students also toured 海角社区鈥檚 engineering labs and created their own robotic eel.
Taravella is the recipient of several grants for his research into hydrodynamic propulsion that led to the creation of the robotic eel for use as an underwater drone, to search for mines and in data collection.
The camp culminated Friday with students testing their own robotic eel creation in the University鈥檚 recreation center pool.
