USM Set to Receive Deep Sea Remote Operated Vehicle

It’s an exciting day if you’re a student in USM’s school of Ocean Science and Engineering as the university just announced a new deep sea remotely operated vehicle coming to the campus.

Called ROVs for short, the new technology aims to work on a wider range of ships than currently possible.

Current ROVs are designed to only operate on one or two ship types which can limit research scope and access to deep sea technologies.

These new ROVs would work with a wider range of ships allowing for more unhindered deep-sea research.

The ROVs come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration otherwise known as NOAA. USM is a member of the administration and is receiving one of two new ROV’s available in the country.

This means that USM will be on the leading edge of ocean science and engineering for years to come.

USM Association VP of Research Leila Hamdan said, “We’ve really been pushing to the forefront of ocean exploration in the last 10 or so years. This allows us to show up to ocean exploration with the expertise and interest but also now with the tools. We can now take all the excitement from a ship and plunk that into a remotely operated vehicle that’s the size of a medium sized SUV onto the sea floor so it can be our eyes, ears, and hands on the sea floor.”

The NOAA Funded ROV aims to revitalize the aquatic habitats that were damaged by the deepwater horizon oil spill.

These vehicles will begin construction in 2024 with hopes to be in the Gulf by the end of 2025.