Nuclear
Powered Oceanographic Research Submarine Exploration Program (NORSE)
For the
second year in a row Executive Director Kimball was one of seven judges at a
Bedford, NY eighth grade science class design competition known as the Nuclear
Powered Oceanographic Research Submarine Exploration Program (NORSE). Other
members of the judging team on May 21 included Jim Lawrence from the Connecticut
Maritime Association (CMA), Lisa Reed and Dave Bennett from Electric Boat and
SNAME members Peter Wallace, Geoff Uttmark and Bill Gray.
The following message was
received from the students the next day:
“To
all of you who helped us with our submarine research,
On behalf
of the 8th grade at Rippowam Cisqua School in Bedford, New York, we would like
to thank you for the tremendous amount of help and support that you have given
us throughout the past month. It has been a strenuous, stressful, and time consuming
project, but with your guidance and dedication, we have been able to achieve
our goal, the final presentation. Studying physics through the Maritime World
is extremely difficult, but with your help, we passed with flying colors. We
would like to thank everyone who helped us, and to those who came to our school
and watched our presentations, it was a pleasure to meet you. Thanks Again!
Sincerely,
Mike Sandwick, Project
Manager, Atomic Engineering Inc.
Taylor Simmons, Project Manager, Revolution Engineering Corp.
Elsie Swank, Project Manager, Pantheon Corporation”
The eighth
graders were divided into three corporate teams of 17 students each with the
names Revolution Corp., Pantheon Corp., and Atomic Engineering Corp. Each team
had four departments: Hull Design, Propulsion, Ship Control and Electrical Distribution.
They presented, for evaluation by the panel of judges, a design proposal for
a nuclear powered research submarine capable of operating at a depth of 1000
feet, and deploying two Alvin Deep Submergence Vehicles (DSV) to conduct scientific
research at depths as low as 27,000 feet anywhere in the ocean, without regard
to surface sea state or weather conditions. Each student member of the team
had two minutes to present his or her part of the subsystem using PowerPoint
slides. At the conclusion of each presentation the panel asked questions and
provided feedback.
SNAME
played a leading role in providing the sources for the students’ research
including reference texts and books written by members. Additionally,
the students made two field trips, one to the United States Merchant Marine
Academy to study pumps, motors, evaporators, hydraulic steering gear, turbines,
diesel engines, and boilers in operation at USMMA’s Marine Engineering
Laboratory, and another to the State University of New York’s Maritime
College to visit the TS EMPIRE STATE and tour her engine room, shaft alley,
bridge, main deck, berthing, galley/mess rooms, and steering gear room.
SNAME, CMA
and Electric Boat are discussing the possibilities of collaboration to expand
this type of program for schools in the public sector, particularly those near
coastal waterways, as part of our collective commitment to developing interest
by young people in careers in engineering and the maritime industry.
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