Milton Academy’s remotely operated underwater vehicle team (M.A.R.O.V.) placed second at the New England Regional R.O.V. Competition held at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, Massachusetts on May 6. As a result of their second place finish, the M.A.R.O.V. team has earned a qualifying slot at the International R.O.V. Competition to be held at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (N.B.L.) at N.A.S.A.’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on June 23-25.

The regional competition included two underwater tasks to be completed in roughly 20 feet of water. M.A.R.O.V.’s vehicle, Hallie, had to first descend with a Plexiglas electronics module, install it within a frame, open the frame door, and insert a communications cable into a selected port on the module. Hallie then had to surface and prepare to dive again to trigger a malfunctioned acoustic release transponder that released an instrument package. All tasks were completed using only the views from Hallie’s two underwater cameras.

This year’s M.A.R.O.V. team includes Sam Minkoff (Class I), Charles Johnson (Class II), Dan Abrams (Class III), Marie Lea Berkowitz (Class II), Yoo-Na Kim (Class II), Chae Yeong Yoo (Class II), Hee-Seung Yang (Class II), Tim Fram (Class II), Austin Cheng (Class II), Nop Jiarathanakul (Class III), Alice Tin (Class I), Stephen Suh (Class III), Paul Hopkins and John Hayden (Class III).