Northeast's SeaPerch team captures another first place title

GLENDA SANDERS |, The Meridian Star, Miss.
·2 min read

Mar. 25—Northeast Lauderdale High School's Navy JROTC's SeaPerch team captured another first place win this season at the fourth annual SeaPerch ROV Competition held Saturday in Mobile, Alabama.

Northeast NJROTC was one of seven middle and high school teams — and the only team from Mississippi — to compete in the Alabama regional SeaPerch event, held at UMS-Wright Preparatory School and co-hosted by Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

In Saturday's competition, the Northeast SeaPerch team placed first in the underwater obstacle course and underwater mission course and finished in second place in the technical design report portion of the competition, said retired Cmdr. Chad West, Northeast's Navy JROTC senior naval science instructor. The team was named the overall regional champion.

Members of the team include Cadet Dylan Lawrence, a junior and team captain; Cadet Antoinette Brown, a junior; Cadet Gerrian Elam, a sophomore; and Cadet Allie Dean, a sophomore.

In March, Northeast's SeaPerch team was also named overall champion at another regional competition, the inaugural Marion Military Institute Central Alabama SeaPerch Competition. Placing first at that event qualified the team to compete in the upcoming 2024 International SeaPerch Challenge to be held at the University of Maryland.

Because of Northeast's earlier qualification, Rehobeth High School NJROTC, of Dothan, Alabama, which finished in second place on Saturday, earned the regional slot to attend the international competition, West said.

In the SeaPerch program, cadets use their engineering skills to design and construct an underwater robot, or remotely operated vehicle. During competition, team members use handheld controllers to navigate their robot through a series of underwater obstacles in a swimming pool.

The theme for the 2024 SeaPerch competition is deep sea exploration, and the two pool courses in Saturday's competition challenged students' engineering and problem-solving skills. The students maneuvered their ROVs through an obstacle course of five hoops at top speed, as well as faced mission course challenges of retrieving items, collecting samples and releasing buoys.

The 2024 International SeaPerch Challenge will take place May 31 and June 1.

Contact Glenda Sanders at gsanders@themeridianstar.com.