Visiting Nancy Foster

Last week the Senior Vessel Ops class took a trip to the NOAA ship Nancy Foster, while it stopped at West Manhattan. We had the privilege of meeting the captain, most of the officers and crew members, and we learned about the many different jobs, rooms, and parts of the ship. One of the positions that caught my interest was the ROV and engineering position. The crew member in charge engineers and puts together remotely controlled underwater vehicles, which they use for missions, observations and other things. The ROV that was present to us that day cost thousands of dollars to assemble and needed to be tethered to the ship because it wasn’t yet ready to go wireless. I’m so interested in the robotic engineering gig of the ship because I started participating in robotic programs such as Lego Mindstorms and in competitions from such an early age, and even continued to do so into middle school and a bit of high school. It’s always caught my interest, and to do it while traveling around the world is a great opportunity. Besides that, the rest of the ship’s positions were fascinating as well and I really loved that even though it’s a research vessel, it had many options of entertainment and relief, it’s a place of business and fun.

-Alhassan Alfatimi

Pictured above is a large ROV being launched from Nancy Foster in 2012