Ethan Stock

SeaPerch team sets personal best at international tournament.

The Baldwin SeaPerch team competed in internationals at the University of Maryland over the weekend and set two personal bests. 

“I felt they had their personal best performance, and they had a personal best record for both courses,” gifted teacher Jared Hoffman said.

In the SeaPerch competition, students design and troubleshoot their underwater “bots,” or robots, which they then pilot through two courses. The Baldwin team consisted of juniors Regan Eckert and Morgan Douglass, who competed with their bot, which they named King Goose. 

At the international competition, Douglass and Eckert placed 45th out of 75 teams that came from four different continents.

“I think that was actually pretty cool – that it’s such a worldwide thing and that we were able to be a part of that thing,” Eckert said. 

Eckert and Douglas scored 65 points out of a possible 100 on the obstacle course, with that being a personal best for the team. The obstacle course is composed of five hula hoops that the bots must swim up and down through. 

Also, the team earned its personal best time on the mission course. The mission course is a timed simulation of underwater removal of hazardous material. The bots have to remove objects and open trap doors to simulate operations at possible shipwrecks.  

“At the last competition we got 1 minute 30 seconds, and at the international we were able to get 1 minute 20 seconds on the mission course,” Eckert said. 

Overall both Eckert and Douglass are proud of their accomplishments in the tournament. 

“I think it went really well. I think there was definitely really strong competition and some of the teams were very intimidating,” Eckert said.  

Participating in the international competition was a first for both of the girls.

“It was really interesting and very exciting to get to go,” Eckert said. 

This was the third time in the past 11 years that Baldwin’s SeaPerch team has reached the international competition. Hoffman has high hopes for the future.

“I hope to grow the club and grow the group, and I hope more teams can make internationals next year,” Hoffman said.