Univerisity of Delaware expands ocean research
By: Molly Murray , Taken from Delaware Online
Students and faculty at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment are now conducting research with help from their new mechanical friends. Earlier this month the University of Delaware expanded the Lewes Campus by building a brand new robotic laboratory and adding a second research vessel to their fleet. This laboratory holds six autonomous robot torpedoes designed to “explore the bottom of the ocean, map its contours, take continuous readings of environmental conditions, and even rescue other robots”(Murray). These robots are already studying sturgeons, scallops, and penguins from coastal Atlantic ocean to the Antarctic. Along with the new robots, the University commissioned the research vessel the R/V Joanne Daiber. The vessel contains two labs on board and has been used as a floating classroom for university students. R/V Joanne Diaber is both less expensive to operate and travel through shallower water. With the much smaller draft conducting research in shallower water is a new possibility. These new tools for research are opening more possibilities that previously had been impossible.
English 110-075, Fall 2014 