NUWC Division Newport’s Summer STEM Program Encourages Career Exploration
Mirolla Saleb (center) of Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, drives her team’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in a test pool as teammates Alexander Tungkasiri (from left) of The Pennington School in New Jersey, and Rhode Island students, Joseph Vitolo of East Providence High School, Cole Shotwell of North Kingstown High School, and Avi Tripurneni of East Greenwich High School, look on. The ROV competition, held on Aug. 13, 2025, was part of the Naval Undersea Warfare Ce
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport’s Undersea Technology Apprentice Program (UTAP) welcomed 50 high school students to explore building, programming and driving remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) over two three-week sessions held in July and August.
Designed as a steppingstone to science, math, technology and engineering (STEM) careers, UTAP is aimed at providing clarity for high school students interested in those fields. Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., attended the sessions held July 7-24 and July 28-August 14.
On the first day of each session, students received a SeaPerch Kit containing all the parts needed to build a basic ROV. As the week progressed, the teams were given additional motors, a video game controller, a custom-designed circuit board and a screen and a camera to build onto their SeaPerch ROV.
Raspberry Pi, a single board computer, then had to be programmed and each student took turns soldering, driving the ROV, and managing an engineering notebook.
Division Newport scientists and engineers taught students new concepts through lectures and guided prompts. The teams tested different designs that could potentially overcome obstacles in a water tank.
On the team final competition days, July 23 and Aug. 13, the students gathered near the saltwater test pool set up outside Building 80. Mike DeSousa, Division Newport’s program manager of K-12 STEM Outreach, then provided a mission briefing which required each team to maneuver their ROV through a “shipwreck.”
The team that completed the series of challenges with the most points won the competition, but to be the winning team of the session, the students were also graded for their engineering notebook and final engineering report. The aim is to teach students the importance of documenting results.
The winning team from the first session includes Rhode Island students Emily Gimple and Lianna Cowan, Toll Gate High School in Warwick; Michael Jandron, Coventry High School; Lucas Hoefferle, Moses Brown School in Providence; and New Jersey student Kavin Padma of Monroe Township High School.
The winning team from the second session includes Rhode Island students Andrew “Nicholas” Parisi, East Greenwich High School; Vienna Hevenor, North Kingstown High School; Benjamin Simone, Tiverton High School; Brynn Tuxbury, Exeter-West Greenwich Regional High School; and George Karonis, The Wheeler School in Providence.
August 2025
