Dec. 14, 2009
By Sarah VanMetre, U-M Athletic Media Relations
On a typical morning at Canham Natatorium, you can expect to see some swimmers, water polo players, maybe a diver or two. That was not the case last Wednesday morning, when the diving well was made to represent the Jupiter moon, Europa, and robots were trying to identify sea creatures.
Instead of swimmers with jammers and goggles on, there were college freshmen milling about in jeans and sweaters, definitely not natatorium attire. Wires, controls, cameras and robots were everywhere in place of kickboards, flippers and snorkels. Not your typical morning at the pool.
A section of ENG 100, taught by Julie Young and Robin Fowler of the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program, spent the morning at the Nat testing their final project, the use of an ROV, or remote operated vehicle. "It is taken in place of freshman composition," Dr. Laura Alford, a lecturer in the College of Engineering explained of the course. "It is a design-build-test course with two cycles. The first project is much simpler and then there is this underwater project.
"We like to do things in a hands-on manner," she said. "After building something like this, they then have to write reports. But now they are writing about something they have an interest in and something they have actually done."
The goal of the class is to give students a taste of engineering in the real world so that upon graduation, they know what they are capable of doing. The four-credit hour class meets for six hours a week, presenting plenty of work to its students.
Divided into groups of four or five people for this second project, the class had to make something that NASA would use to explore Europa, one of Jupiter's 63 confirmed moons. The idea behind the project was to create something that could be launched into space and explore the moon for sea creatures, something NASA is currently doing.
Each group was assigned to make an ROV equipped with a camera that could traverse across the diving well to a board hanging underwater on the opposite wall. The board was full of different "sea creatures", made up of household objects like cat toys. Each creature has a number, corresponding to a number each group is given.
Once reaching the board, the ROV must find its assigned object and describe it before making its way back across to the other side. This is normally limited to about 10 minutes, just to make sure that the students do not have to spend their entire day devoted to this activity.
"What is great about this class is that it teaches so many things that you need to learn. These students learn what to do, how to use different equipment, and most importantly, how to work in teams. Since this is a freshman class, we try to give them a taste of everything. We want to build a solid foundation for the rest of their time in the engineering program here, so we go over terminology, writing reports, trying new things, building things. There is not really any other design or building course until they are seniors, so we want to make sure that they leave this class with a lot of different knowledge," Alford said.
The ENG 100 class provides a foundation and a platform for students to use their knowledge in a real-world setting. An ROV that was present at the Nat on testing day was recently used to help survey tsunami damage off the coast of American Samoa this past September. Equipped with a camera of its own, this ROV was able to follow the students' projects and show video up on the board, allowing everyone to see what was happening underwater.
This year marks the first time the class has used Canham as its testing site after using the Marine Dynamics Lab at West Hall the past few years. It gives the class more space, also allowing for spectators to come watch.
Another advantage of using Canham is the video capabilities of the facility, allowing students and professors to follow along with what is happening underwater. With three underwater cameras, including one hooked up to an ROV, everyone can follow along by watching the several televisions on deck or by glancing at the video board on the wall.
And that is how an engineering class came to spend its Wednesday morning in Canham Natatorium: video. It is a simple explanation. And it all goes back to when head coach Mike Bottom arrived on campus last summer.
Check back tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 15) for part two to see how Bottom and U-M professors have helped take the men's swimming and diving program to another level with the use of under-water cameras.
