PORT ANGELES — Upward Bound students will compete for the title of Supreme Galactic Science Team on Thursday and Friday.
The teams will compete from 8:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. both days at the Peninsula College Fisheries Lab in the M Building on the Port Angeles campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
The event is free and open to the public.
Peninsula College Upward Bound students are building, testing and operating robots to complete their final exam of the summer session.
The course, Mission to Europa, was developed by Upward Bound instructors Wayne Roberts and Christine Spaulding.
The scenario features VEX Clawbots and MATE Angelfish Underwater ROVs working in unison to retrieve water samples from under the ice of Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
“The concept of combining VEX robotics with MATE ROV robotics is the first of its kind in the community and may be the first of its kind in robotics,” Spaulding said.
The experience provides hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills that can lead to educational opportunities in mechanical engineering, electric engineering, marine robotics, physics, Earth and space sciences and computer science, college officials said.
Upward Bound is a federally funded college preparatory program that offers assistance to low-income and first-generation college-bound high school students from Port Angeles High School, Lincoln High School, Crescent High School and Forks High School.
For more information, contact Sara Rinearson at srinearson@pencol.edu.
