Competing against some of the best schools in the country, multi-disciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Washington and Oregon State University came away with four awards this week in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored 2021 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC).
PMEC won Second Place Overall (UW) as well as the Community Outreach and Engagement Award (OSU), Written Report Award (UW), and Device Testing Award (OSU).
The student-led teams used the power of engineering, art, business and oceanography to develop novel wave energy converter (WEC) designs and business concepts for using marine energy to Power the Blue Economy.
PMEC congratulates all of the UW and OSU MECC team members on their exceptional performance in the MECC and particularly acknowledges the dedication shown by the student leads in navigating their teams through a uniquely challenging year.
Be sure to check out a couple of the teams’ awesome outreach products:
1. AVOPS Journey is a comic book available on Amazon Kindle. This short cartoon and story from the University of Washington follows AVOPS (Autonomous Vertical Oceanographic Profiling System) as he makes discoveries about the oceans with the help of his friends. The Kindle download is a donation and proceeds from paperback book sales will go to next year’s UW team. To learn more about renewable energy and Washington WAVE, visit their website. If you download, please leave a 5 star recommendation!
2. RoboWave is a free, single-player web-browser video game that introduces students of all ages to the magic and imagination of the blue economy. The OSU team recognizes that everyone has a different learning style, and that meaningful engagement is never one-size fits all. Their interdisciplinary team coded the game in JavaScript, designed original graphics, and memorable characters. To Play: Conduct your research by collecting shells (points) with Robowave while trying to avert bombs and keep your battery charged (achieved by touching the point-absorber WEC at the top of the screen). Try it out and see if you can beat the high score of 800! Learn more about the OSU team.