Dr. Teresa Carter Stands with the MATE ROV Poster.
Milligan Professors Dr. Carolyn Carter, Professor Milton Carter and Dr. Theresa Carter will serve as judges for a regional robotics competition on April 27. The professors are volunteering with Streamworks, an education company created and funded by the Eastman Foundation in Kingsport that seeks to promote STEM skills with local grade schoolers.
Streamworks is participating in a larger competition, the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) competition, created by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) company. This international contest challenges k-12 and college students to design, build and program submersible ROVs. The local teams are given funding for their materials by Streamworks. “Four to five thousand dollars a pop,” said Dr. Teresa Carter.
The contest will simulate the real world application of deploying ROVs to inspect or repair damaged pipelines underwater. According to Dr. Teresa Carter, while robotics is a key part of the challenge, the central focus of the projects is on programming image recognition software- teaching machines to look at and identify objects by name.
The contestants’ robots must be able to move across the pool floor at the Kingsport Aquatic Center, identify different shapes contained in a clear underwater tube and report to the students on the pool deck above what shapes it has identified. While students are allowed to select their own materials and implement their own ROV designs, each ROV must be programmed in the Python coding language.
Beyond designing, constructing, programming and deploying their robots, each team will also hold a presentation on its work before a panel of judges.
“You’ve got to be your own PR… everything,” said Dr. Teresa Carter.
As the Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems, Theresa Carter currently serves on Streamworks’s advisory committee and will be judging projects’ software. Associate Dean of the William B. Greene, Jr. School of Business and Technology, Dr. Carolyn Carter, and Community Outreach Coordinator, Professor Milton Carter are on a team for judging project marketing presentations.
“I’ve seen them [contestants] present. It just blows me away. They are very professional,” Dr. Teresa Carter said. She mentioned a particular group of students that developed a program to keep astronauts in touch with friends and family while working on the International Space Station. “It was unreal.”
The competition will take place on April 26 and 27 at the Kingsport Aquatic Center. The events are free and open to the public.