What were the other options for your team’s name?  If there was only ever the one option for your name, what is the origin of your team’s name?

Sea Kittens; we always wanted a team name related to animals but chose Porpoise at the end since they’re so cute, smart and playful. We think that summarises the key qualities of our team well.

What word/phrase is most often heard when your team is working on your ROV?

"I don’t get it. Why doesn’t it work?”

Which job or thing your team has to do is the hardest? Why?

Troubleshooting and fixing the electronic components of the robot. We found it particularly hard and frustrating to bounce back from failures and evaluate our systems when the robot was working fine a week ago.

What is your team's go-to snack food(s)?

Oreos and pizzas (only food that delivers to our school)

What was the most celebrated/happiest/best/epic moment of success making your ROV?

When we managed to pick up Dive Sticks repeatedly from our pool using our gripper last winter in less than 20 seconds.

What was your most memorable challenge/complete fail in building your ROV? 

Our robot broke down on the first day of the Regional competition. A short circuit in the power cable led to many other problems - after an entire day of rewiring and troubleshooting, the robot still didn’t work. It wasn’t until the next morning at 7am that we got the whole robot working. We had to rush to the competition to do our first run.

What "theme" – the scientific or physical problem to be addressed with an ROV task – would you most like to see included in future competition missions?

Plastic waste in oceans - picking up and collecting plastic waste.

What innovation do you think would completely change how ROVs solve problems in the future?

Ability to deploy 10+ mini-robots controlled by the main robot.; Batteries that can last for days.

If you could swap ROVs with any team – past or present – what team would it be?

CityU (Hong Kong) - their robot has been a huge inspiration for us when we first started and we actually started underwater robotics in the adventurer category after participating in their workshop. They’ve helped us a lot since we were 12!

HKUST has also had some amazing robots that we could aspire to!

RANGER

Hong Kong

f your team had/has one, what is your team’s “theme song”?

”Under Pressure” by Queen:

Company Spec Sheet

What were the other options for your team’s name?  If there was only ever the one option for your name, what is the origin of your team’s name?

HydroBots

What word/phrase is most often heard when your team is working on your ROV?

"Can you pass me that?”

Which job or thing your team has to do is the hardest? Why?

Building. Building the bot is the hardest thing that our team has to do because we try to make everything so precise and we don't stop until we think it is perfect. That being said, all jobs have substantial degrees of difficulty and we all work together to ensure that all standards are met.

What is your team's go-to snack food(s)?

Bagels and eggs made by Henry

What was the most celebrated/happiest/best/epic moment of success making your ROV?

When we completed the circuit board perfectly without ruining any components, we had a little celebration. It was a pretty happy moment that we all shared.

What was your most memorable challenge/complete fail in building your ROV? 

When we built the base of the robot for the first time, we built it too small. Therefore, no part of the robot fit with the other parts.

What "theme" – the scientific or physical problem to be addressed with an ROV task – would you most like to see included in future competition missions?

Water volleyball game to a certain number of points. It would be fun to design a robot that can swim but also hit a volleyball with precision.

What innovation do you think would completely change how ROVs solve problems in the future?

Advancements in AI and detection software. This will dramatically increase the ability of ROVs to not only see their environment, but know what to do in a more fluid-like fashion.

If you could swap ROVs with any team – past or present – what team would it be?

We like the designs of our other teams' ROVs and therefore we wouldn't mind swapping with them. However, we like ours the best.

RANGER

Florida

If your team had/has one, what is your team’s “theme song”?

The theme song from The Office: