STEM students help local non-profit visualize the ocean
Over 95 percent of the planet’s oceans remain unexplored. To generate interest in ocean research, Seattle Central students helped the OceanGate Foundation, a local non-profit, build a camera that will allow people to explore the ocean’s depths from their own computers. Last month, the organization hosted a “hack-a-thon” that challenged a group of students to create a simple 360-degree time-lapse camera capable of collecting imagery for up to six hours.
A group of four students created a design for a low-cost camera that they will build with logistical and financial support from the foundation over the next several months in preparation for a dive in June. Their goal for this project is to create a “DiveView,” much like Google’s StreetView, to help document dive activities and increase enthusiasm for ocean research among stakeholders.