THERE ARE NO LIMITS
OUTREACH
Supporting our community through outreach will ignite the talent, ideas, and engagement in our field. We aim to inspire young people to pursue careers in engineering and join us as we expand future possibilities.
PacMar Technologies has developed two educational video games that encourage students to engage in creative decision making within real-world constraints and then test their designs in environments with realistic physics. We partner with professional societies and educational organizations to ensure that these programs are well supported with curricula and training materials for educators and parents. And we believe that incorporating these educational concepts into approachable mediums like video games will highlight the exciting areas of this field and entice young people to learn more.
Robot X
RobotX is an international marine robotics competition that allows university students worldwide to compete to develop the most successful autonomous surface vessel, exposing future innovators to complex robotics and autonomy problems while encouraging novel solutions.
The students focus on navigation systems, environment sensing, and control algorithms that enable their vehicle to complete a variety of navigational courses and standard maneuvers such as docking. Challenges also include complex logistical problems such as deployment of autonomous underwater vehicles to recover submerged objects or aerial vehicles to make observations.
Every team uses a common platform, the Wave Adapted Modular Vessel (WAM-V), which is stable and capable of carrying a high payload. By standardizing the platform, students can focus on the robotics and autonomy problems and delivery high-performance vehicles. Throughout the program, students also learn skills in program management, budgeting, fundraising, and leadership. PacMar Technologies is proud to provide logistical support for the at-sea challenge in Honolulu, Hawaii as well as provide software and modelling techniques that enable a biennial virtual competition.
Fleet
FLEET is a web-based science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competition that is free to students worldwide. FLEET utilizes the youth-friendly model of gamification to engage high school students in naval ship design and enables them to apply the real-life applications of STEM.
Working individually or on teams, students compete via a web-based platform to complete four different missions, and in the process address the same challenges in ship design and operation that professional naval architects consider on a daily basis. Lesson plans, schedules, and other resources are available to make this game accessible to a wide variety of age groups.
This game and the associated program resources were developed in partnership with the American Society of Naval Engineers. To download the game, view lesson plans, or even talk to an educator about the program, contact the American Society of Naval Engineers.