Harrington Middle School Seabots prepare for 2014 SeaPerch National Challenge.

Last month, Harrington Middle School proved it was one of the best at aquatic robotics in the region.

Now, it will get a chance to prove it is one of the best in the country.

The Harrington Middle School Seabots are heading to the University of Southern Mississippi to participate in the 2014 SeaPerch National Challenge on Saturday, May 17. The team qualified for the challenge by taking home the top prize at a regional competition on April 26 at Rowan University.

The trip to nationals is the first ever for the Seabots, coming one year after they finished runner-up in their region. This time around, the team had something extra, according to club CEO Sanjana Jampana.
“We’ve had a lot of teams come close in previous years, but not like this year,” she said. “We have the perfect combination. This is such a good team, everyone is so cooperative and willing to work together to get everything done.”

At the SeaPerch regional competition, which included schools from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the team had to give an oral presentation and put its ROV through a pair of pool challenges. One of the challenges is called “The Heist” and involves opening a gate to retrieve an item underwater. The other challenge is an obstacle course.

The team succeeded overall, finishing in the top three of all the events out of a field of 40 teams. This led to its victory and qualification for nationals.

The victory was far from easy, however. All year long, the team has developed and made changes to its rover to improve on its performance.

The team is provided with a kit and a modest $20 budget to build its rover. While the rover itself only took a few hours to build, the club has a limited time to meet.

“It took us about three weeks,” said club CFO Jonathan Procopio. “We only meet once a week for about an hour. So it takes a few weeks total to build it.”

The time building the rover doesn’t include the pre-construction process. Jampana estimates she spends about 50 hours just creating the notebook for the competition.

“Most of the other stuff takes more time than making the ROV itself,” she said. “The notebook takes the longest.”

The amount of work doesn’t deter the team’s members. Led by Harrington’s STEM teacher Maureen Barrett, the team assembles every Tuesday after school to prepare for competition. The room is full of students surrounding computers, a pool in the back of the classroom or the rover itself.

“We’re all friends,” Procopio said. “We all have a good time together.”

The mood surrounding the team is ecstatic heading into Saturday’s challenge. In their prior competition, Procopio noted they were representing their school and Mt. Laurel. Now, they go into competition with 100 of the best schools in the country representing the entire Delaware Valley.

While the team is hoping to come home with even more trophies, it also hopes to represent its school in a positive manner.

“We represent our school with hard work, teamwork and leadership qualities,” Procopio said. “That’s what we show and offer at Harrington.”